THE CHALLENGE OF 

I THE 

SUNDAY , 




Class J2&L524 

Book ,W .*> 

GopyrigIrt)€__ 



COPYRIGHT PEPOSffi 



THE CHALLENGE OF 

THE 
SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 



By 



CHARLES P. \JfILES, D.D. 

Editor of The Lutheran Publication Society 



PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY 



-*$ 



Copyright, 1916, by 
THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY 



f 



.cr* 



JAN 29 1917 

©CI.A453835 



FOREWORD 

What the public school system is to the 
state the Sunday school is to the Church. 
The educational function of the Church is 
carried on largely through the Sunday school. 

When Christ gave the command to His 
disciples to go into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature, He added, 
u Teaching them." There can be no true 
preaching without an element of teaching, 
but all teaching cannot be included in preach- 
ing. Teaching carries with it two distinct 
ideas: the direct and personal character of 
the message, and the catechetical form of in- 
struction. The Church has both her preach- 
ing and her teaching service. The Sunday 
school is the Church teaching. The justifica- 
tion of the Sunday school can be traced easily 
to the command and example of our Saviour. 

Within the past ten years a voluminous 
amount of literature on the history and work 
of the Sunday school has been published. 
The result is that not only has every aspect 
of the activity of this institution been fully 
covered, but there has also been given it a 
new estimate and value. The Sunday school 
looms larger than ever before. Its appeal is 

3 



4 FOREWORD 

stronger. Its place and function in the on- 
ward march of the Christian Church are 
everywhere recognized. It is challenging 
the services of our most talented men and 
women. 

It would be presumptuous to claim that 
anything new will be found in these pages. 
The author has attempted to indicate the 
dignity and place of the Sunday school, and 
to re-emphasize some of its fundamental 
principles and aims. Methods are not dis- 
credited, only they do not find large place 
here. They are secondary, and we have en- 
deavored to put first things first. 

One cannot engage in Sunday school work 
for any length of time without being im- 
pressed with the need of calling its leaders 
back to first principles. No amount of 
material or intellectual equipment can take 
the place of ample spiritual furnishing. The 
Holy Spirit can make some use of an un- 
worthy instrument; He can make more use 
of a weak instrument; but He can make most 
use of a well-trained and fully consecrated 
instrument. The motive, purpose and aim 
of what we do must be kept steadily before 
us. 

At the request of the editor of Lutheran 
Church Work, the author prepared a series 
of articles on the Sunday school for that peri- 



FOREWORD 5 

odical. About the same time the Lutheran 
Board of Publication requested that he de- 
liver several addresses on the same subject 
before our five theological seminaries in this 
country. 

These articles and addresses form the 
basis of this small volume, which amplifies 
and gives to them a more popular as well 
as a more permanent character. It is in- 
tended for those who are interested in the 
Sunday school, and for those who are not. 
It touches upon problems that rise above any- 
thing that is of purely local interest. It 
shows that he who goes into the Sunday 
school steps up, not down. May it serve, 
in some measure, to help us see and seize 
the opportunity the school of the Church 
offers us, and inspire us to do the best of 
which we are capable. 

The Author. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 1916 



CONTENTS 

I PAGE 

THE HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

I. Before the Time of Robert Raikes io 

II. Robert Raikes, the Founder of the Modern 

Sunday School 21 

III. The Introduction of the Sunday School 

Into America 28 

IV. The Evolution of Sunday School Lesson 

Courses 34 

V. The International Uniform and Graded 

Lesson Systems 41 

II 
THE PLACE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

I. What the Sunday School Is Not 51 

1. It Is Not a Substitute 51 

2. It Is Not Another Church 52 

3. It Is Not an Independent Organization 52 

4. It Is Not an Institution 53 

II. What the Sunday School Is 56 

1. It Is the Children's Church 57 

2. It Is the Nursery of the Church 58 

3. It Is a Recruiting Station 60 

4. It Is an Evangelizing Force 62 

5. It Is the Church of the Future 64 

6. It Is the Bible School 65 

7. It Is the Church School 66 

III. How to Secure the Attendance of the 

Scholars at the Church Services 69 

1. By the Combination Service 73 

2. By Making Plain the Divine Character of the 

Church 75 

3. By Bringing the Church Into the School 75 

4. By Choosing for Officers and Teachers Those 

Who Are Faithful 76 

5. By Having Teachers Bring Their Classes to 

the Church Service 77 

6. By Keeping a Record of Attendance 7$ 

7. By Restoring the Family Pew 80 

8. By Giving Prominence to the Importance of 

Church Attendance 80 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

9. By Being Patient and Tactful 81 

10. By Holding the School in the Morning 81 

III 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

I. Teaching the Bible 84 

II. The Church Teaching 85 

III. Training the Spiritual Life 88 

IV. The Elimination of the Bible From the 

Public Schools 90 

V. The Neglect of Family Religion 97 

VI. The Non-Attendance of Children at Pub- 
lic Worship 102 

VII. The Wide Influence of the Sunday 

School 105 

VIII. The Child at the Formative Period 107 

IV 

THE AIM OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
I. The Value of Aims no 

11. The Growth of Aims in 

III. Aims Negatively Stated 114 

1. Not to Do What Is Already Being Done 114 

2. Not to Become a Social Center 116 

3. Not to Out-Number Some Other School 117 

4. Not to Relieve Parents 118 

IV. Aims Positively Stated 120 

1. To Do the Work of the Church 120 

2. To Instruct in the Word of God 122 

3. To Lead to Personal Salvation 129 

4. To Train in Unselfish Service 137 

V 
THE EFFICIENCY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

I. The Building 145 

II. The Literature 150 

1. The Bible and Lesson Helps 151 

2. The Music 157 

3. The Library 160 

III. The Leadership 165 

1. The Pastor 165 

2. The Superintendent 170 

3. The Teacher 174 



The Challenge of the 
Sunday School 



THE HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 

In these pages we shall ordinarily use the 
popular name for this institution — the Sun- 
day school. Some very good arguments could 
be advanced why it would be better to call 
it the Bible school; and others equally good 
why it might be called the Church school. 
Indeed, these alternatives have gained cur- 
rency in certain quarters, whether to the ad- 
vantage of the school or not, it is impossible 
to say. One name may better describe an 
institution as to its functions than another, 
but that may not make it more effective. Its 
effectiveness depends on the amount of in- 
telligent thought and life we put into it. 

We dare not forget that the Church is the 
mother of the Sunday school, for whose 
larger usefulness and swifter propagation 
the school has been called into existence. 



10 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The school is of the Church, by the Church, 
and for the Church. It is not an independ- 
ent institution. It is literally the Church 
school, or the school of the Church. 

Then, too, we must remember the text- 
book of the school is the Bible. The school 
is a distinctively religious institution. And 
the Bible has the first and last word to offer 
on religion. Whatever takes attention from 
this book is foreign; whatever exalts it and 
makes its message pertinent and pointed, 
may be introduced. But it holds the center. 

Each of the names proposed for this or- 
ganization emphasizes one of its features. 
But no mere name can give it potency, or 
make it fulfill its mission, or save it from dis- 
integration. Its content and efficiency will 
come from our right thoughts concerning it 
and our proper attitude toward it. 

1. Before the Time of Robert Raikes 
History will continue, as in the past, to 
accord to Robert Raikes the unique distinc- 
tion of being the founder of the modern Sun- 
day school. His part in the creation of this 
institution, which has been an agency of the 
Church for untold good to practically all 
lands, none will dispute. However, the 
Sunday school would scarcely be any less a 
potent factor in our religious life to-day had 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 11 

Raikes never been born. It was ready to 
spring into existence at a hundred places in 
Europe and America; indeed, it had come 
into being in not a few churches. The germ 
and principle of the Sunday school go back 
to the beginning of the human race, so that 
it is not inaccurate to speak of the Sunday 
school before the time of Raikes. 

Rabbinical literature abounds in refer- 
ences to schools of religious instruction under 
Methuselah, Shem, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, 
Joshua, Deborah, Elisha and Hezekiah. 
What proportion of these writings is authen- 
tic it is impossible to say. That they have 
more than a grain of truth in them one can 
easily believe. The brevity of the sacred 
Scriptures precludes us from knowing just 
how thorough the system of instruction had 
become. But there are sufficient references 
to convince us that the indoctrination of both 
young and old, in the revealed will of God, 
was paramount in the period of the patri- 
archs and later. Recent excavations in the 
East show us that Bible texts and sacred 
hymns were a part of the school work of that 
day. Nor was this the case among the Jews 
alone. Religion had a conspicuous place in 
the educational systems of Babylonia, Egypt, 
Assyria, China and India. Schools were con- 
nected with the temples, and those who be- 



12 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

longed to the priestly classes were the teach- 
ers. Many interesting traditions which tell 
of the place accorded religious education in 
the life of nations have been confirmed by 
inscriptions on rock and clay tablets which 
have been brought to light by the industrious 
excavators. 

More than a few significant suggestions 
are given us of the work done by Abraham, 
Moses, Jehoshaphat, Elijah, Elisha and 
Ezra. No other commandment was laid 
more frequently on the hearts of the leaders 
in Israel than that of teaching the law. It 
is unthinkable that religious education, ex- 
cept in periods of eclipse of faith, was hap- 
hazard and sporadic. 

Students of the school system in vogue 
among the ancient Jews are agreed that the 
modern Sunday school is based upon the 
Bible school connected with the synagogues. 
Dr. H. F. Cope writes: "The regular syna- 
gogue service itself was almost an exact pro- 
totype of the early Sunday school. The serv- 
ice consisted of the public recitation of pas- 
sages calling on the people to remember the 
law and the words of Jehovah, the reading 
of parts of the law and parts of the proph- 
ets, the offering of prayer, and the giving 
of a formal benediction. The Scriptures 
were read in the ancient tongue, and a trans- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 13 

lation into the popular dialect given, fol- 
lowed by a popular exposition." The his- 
tory, traditions and literature of these people 
were subjects of thorough study, and were 
taught by one generation to another. As 
long as the word of God was faithfully 
taught, and not buried beneath a mountain 
of traditions and human requirements, the 
integrity of the national life was preserved, 
and the attempts by adjacent peoples at ag- 
gression were repulsed. 

Long before the birth of Christ a chain 
of religious schools had come into existence 
throughout Palestine, so that almost every 
synagogue had its elementary, and, in many 
cases, its more advanced school. Attendance 
upon these schools was obligatory. No teacher 
was allowed to have more than about twenty- 
five pupils. If there were forty he had to 
have an assistant; if fifty, then two teachers 
were appointed. The Old Testament was 
the chief text-book. Pupils were required to 
begin with Leviticus, then followed the re- 
mainder of the Pentateuch, the Prophets and 
the Hagiographa. Both Philo and Josephus 
testify to the existence of a complete reli- 
gious school system in Palestine in the days 
of our Lord. Geikie writes: "It cannot be 
doubted that boys' schools were already gen- 
eral in the time of Christ." The temple at 



14 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Jerusalem was the place where sacrifices were 
offered, but the hundreds of synagogues 
throughout the length and breadth of the 
land were so many centers for the promotion 
of Bible study. For the first half dozen 
years or so the pupils were allowed nothing 
for study but the text of the Scriptures. 
Afterwards they took up the traditional 
writings and commentaries. "Text-books" 
and u lesson helps" were provided. Copies 
of the Scriptures in whole and in part were 
available for use. 

In addition to these elementary schools 
which met daily, the Sabbath excepted, there 
were the synagogue Bible schools, which 
were in session on Saturday, and also on 
Monday and Thursday, u in order that the 
country people, when they came into town to 
do their marketing, might have the privileges 
of religious instruction." Two services were 
held on the Sabbath, one in the morning for 
worship, and the other in the afternoon for 
Bible study. The former was called the 
preaching and the latter the teaching service. 
The organization of this Bible school was 
quite similar to that of our Sunday school. 
There was a chief officer, often a rabbi, with 
assistant officers and teachers. The school 
was composed of both young and old. The 
method of instruction was by questions and 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 15 

answers. A careful study of the synagogue 
schools reveals a striking similarity between 
them and our Sunday schools. 

The apostles had been Jews. The early 
Christian Church was made up largely of con- 
verted Jews. These continued to go to the 
synagogues and to send their children to the 
synagogue schools. The breaking away from 
old associations and methods was gradual. In 
course of time the growing hostility of the 
Jews toward the Christians compelled the 
latter to seek other quarters and to inaugu- 
rate their own program. But these Chris- 
tians w r ere not helpless. They were familiar 
with the school system of their nation. When 
they went out preaching the gospel their mes- 
sage was different from that of the Jews, 
but their method was not so different. The 
organization of the Christian Church was 
copied after that of the synagogue. The 
evangelists tell us that Jesus went through- 
out Galilee preaching and teaching; and these 
two are not the same. According to the 
terms of the Great Commission, the apostles 
also were to go preaching and teaching. 
Trumbull says: "The Bible school was the 
starting point of the Christian Church; and 
it was by means of Bible school methods that 
the Christian Church was first extended and 
upbuilded." 



16 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The powerful influence of religious in- 
struction was felt for several centuries after 
Christ. The apostolic and post-apostolic 
fathers were great teachers as well as great 
preachers. Here again the Bible was the 
text-book. In not a few cases pupils could 
recite the whole Old Testament from mem- 
ory. Lay members of both sexes were em- 
ployed as teachers. The Bible school stood 
between the Church and the world. It was 
the gateway into the kingdom. The pupils 
were grouped in two, three or four classes, 
according to age and proficiency. Their 
studies were especially on the life of 
Christ — -His birth, life, miracles, teach- 
ings, death, resurrection, ascension. The 
Old Testament was not neglected. In most 
instances thorough work was required. Dur- 
ing the first centuries after Christ the Church 
had many distinguished religious peda- 
gogues. Because of their efficient labors 
the Christian schools, toward the close of 
the fourth century, supplanted the schools 
of the Roman empire, u and from that time 
on, through fourteen centuries, with varying 
success, education remained a function of the 
Church." The dark ages were brought on 
largely through the neglect of the teaching 
function of the Church. The form in some 
measure was maintained, but it was robbed 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 17 

of life through ridiculous superstitions and 
ecclesiastical corruptions. 

The Reformation was an educational 
movement. The people were ignorant and 
superstitious. They were held in the deadly 
embrace of error. Luther, by the transla- 
tion of the Bible, by the preparation of his 
catechisms, and by the writing of numerous 
books and tracts, provided a method where- 
by the German nation could be instructed in 
religion. Bible schools were formed and a 
campaign of education was systematically 
promoted. Had he depended wholly upon 
preaching his success could have been only 
a fraction of what it was. The importance 
he attached to the office of teaching is well 
known among us. He scarcely knew which 
he preferred for himself. By making pro- 
vision for sound religious instruction he gave 
perpetuity to his work. His coadjutors and 
successors approved and adopted his policy. 
Melanchthon, Zwingli, Calvin and Zinzen- 
dorf were master teachers. All of them de- 
vised plans and created a literature for the 
encouragement of popular religious educa- 
tion. Luther appealed to the civil magis- 
trates of Germany for the introduction of 
religious subjects into all the schools. He 
writes: u The strength of a city does not 
consist in the number of its towers and build- 



18 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

ings, but in counting a great number of 
learned, serious and well-educated citizens/' 
And further: "For the Church's sake Chris- 
tian schools must be established and main- 
tained." 

Germany probably never produced a 
greater preacher and teacher than Philip 
Jacob Spener, who was born in 1635 and 
died in 1705. His influence, even when a 
young man, was almost nation wide. He gave 
special attention to catechetical and Bible- 
class work. So popular and powerful had 
been his catechetical lectures that he was in- 
duced by his friends to publish them. This 
he did under the title of U A Simple Exposi- 
tion of Christian Doctrine, After the Order 
of Luther's Smaller Catechism." So superior 
was this compend that it was extensively used. 
Spener was instrumental in recovering the 
impressive rite of confirmation from the dis- 
use into which it had fallen, and in giving it 
its rightful place in the Church. When he 
was but thirty-four years of age he delivered 
a sermon on the righteousness of the Phari- 
sees, applying it to the hypocrisy of his time, 
which greatly aroused his hearers and 
showed them the necessity of a larger knowl- 
edge of the Bible and of a deeper experience 
in holy living. He, therefore, invited those 
who cared to do so to come to his home on 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 19 

Mondays and Wednesdays for Bible study. 
When the meetings were well started they 
were attended by persons of all classes, in- 
cluding ministers, lawyers, merchants, doc- 
tors, mechanics, as well as those of humble 
station. Soon classes in Bible study were 
formed throughout Germany. It will read- 
ily be seen what a worthy champion of the 
effort to give the people a knowledge of the 
Scriptures Spener was. 

August Hermann Francke, born in 1663 
and died in 1727, with his "ragged Sunday 
school," antedated Robert Raikes by almost 
a century. He was troubled at the sight of 
the poor people who came to his door weekly 
for alms. He invited them into his house, 
taught them the catechism, and sent them 
home. But he was not satisfied. He sought 
among friends financial aid with which he 
purchased books and opened a school. He 
engaged a poor student as teacher, agreeing 
to pay him twelve cents per week for two 
hours' work daily. The school began its ses- 
sions at Easter, 1695. By mid-summer there 
were over fifty pupils. This work grew and 
led to the formation of schools with private 
tutors, and to the famous orphanage. With 
him all other subjects were made subordinate 
to the Bible. His work was a monumental 
triumph of faith. 



20 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The patriarch Muhlenberg, duly appre- 
ciating the method and success of Francke, 
imbibed his spirit and brought it with him to 
this country. When he was not preaching he 
was teaching. None who know the history 
of the Lutheran Church can dispute the state- 
ment that we have all along committed our- 
selves to the principle and practice of re- 
ligious education. Gathering the young and 
old in groups and placing them under com- 
petent instructors is not a new thing with us. 
Luther, Francke, Muhlenberg and many 
others were the forerunners of Robert 
Raikes. Before his day also Sunday schools 
were founded in Scotland by John Knox in 
1560; in England by Joseph Alleine in 1650. 
The earliest Sunday schools organized in the 
United States were in Ephrata, Pa., 1639; 
in Roxbury, Mass., 1674; in Plymouth, 
Mass., 1680; in Bethlehem, Conn., 1740; in 
Philadelphia, Pa., 1744. Raikes began his 
work in 1780. 

It will be seen, therefore, that both the 
principle and the method of the Sunday 
school are very old. The springs of all great 
movements lie far off among the hills of the 
past. Were that not true the splendid work 
of Raikes would not have found a prepared 
soil in which to take root and grow. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 21 

2. Robert Raikes, the Founder of the 
Modern Sunday School 

Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, 
England, September 14, 1736. His father 
was editor and proprietor of the Gloucester 
Journal, to which office the son succeeded in 
later years. The commanding position he 
held in the newspaper world opened up for 
him the large opportunity he needed to give 
wings to his Sunday school experiences and 
successes. In that day of limited facilities 
for reaching the public ear with new methods 
of religious work, it was not a matter of 
small consequence that his name was carried 
on the editorial page of a newspaper. 

The origination of the Sunday school was 
not the first piece of merciful and philan- 
thropic work Raikes ever attempted. When 
a young man he frequented the jail of his 
city and studied its miserable conditions. He 
used the columns of his paper to inform his 
readers as to what he had found, and suc- 
ceeded in arousing public opinion to such an 
extent that the surroundings of the prisoners 
were improved. His heart was touched at 
the sight of wretchedness and sin. 

It was half by accident that he was led to 
undertake the movement in behalf of the 
physical, mental and spiritual improvement 



22 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

of poor children. He was on a business 
errand when he saw with his own eyes the 
squalor and sin in which boys and girls were 
living. Though unconscious of their own 
state, they were filthy and clothed in rags, 
wandering about the streets idle and swear- 
ing. The age was one of the darkest mor- 
ally ever known in the annals of English 
history. Atheism, deism, infidelity and ra- 
tionalism had combined to destroy the 
Church of Christ from the earth. All classes 
of society were corrupt and degraded. Dissi- 
pation and utter carelessness toward God 
prevailed. Christianity had reached its low- 
est ebb. Few Church schools were in ex- 
istence, and where they were yet maintained 
more attention was given to forms than to 
the spirit. 

In these perilous and terrible times Robert 
Raikes was born, lived and wrought. He 
was held by a passion to make things better. 
He determined to begin with the children. It 
was in July, 1780, that he opened his first 
school, which was located in Soot Alley, 
Gloucester. It was an experiment, but was 
begun with faith. At the first he hired four 
women, to whom he gave a shilling each per 
Sunday to teach the boys and girls who might 
be gathered together. Rented quarters were 
secured for the first classes. The children 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 23 

were supposed to come in the morning and 
remain until noon, and return again in the 
afternoon and remain until evening; in other 
words, from 10 A.M. to 5.30 p.m., with in- 
termission for dinner and church services. 
They ranged in age from six to fourteen 
years. In the course of a few weeks as many 
as three hundred children were attending 
the school. Assistant teachers were pro- 
vided, some of whom gave their services 
gratuitously. 

Ignorance everywhere prevailed. There 
were no public schools. Probably more than 
ninety per cent of the poor people were illit- 
erate. There were those in England who 
believed the prosperity of the nation de- 
pended on keeping the masses in ignorance. 
It was from this class that Raikes' schools 
were made up. The first thing necessary was 
to teach them to read and write. The primer 
method was introduced. It was necessary 
to begin with the alphabet. As soon as pos- 
sible sentences were formed and lessons read 
from the Bible. The study of the catechism 
formed a considerable part of the curriculum. 
These elementary features constituted the 
major part of the work of the Sunday school 
for almost a quarter of a century. The sys- 
tem of public school education in England 
owes its beginning to the achievements of the 



24 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Sunday school movement. The revival of 
popular education was one of the by-products 
of the far-reaching propaganda fathered by 
Raikes. 

Raikes himself was not any too sanguine 
as to the final outcome of the enterprise which 
lay near his heart and which had begun so 
auspiciously. It was three years after the 
work had been inaugurated before he pub- 
lished his first editorial in the Gloucester 
Journal on the subject of Sunday schools. 
His words were like a trumpet call. The 
Gentleman's Magazine, a paper of large cir- 
culation and influence, took up his words and 
sent them broadcast. The Arminian Maga- 
zine, edited by John Wesley, espoused the 
new movement, which spread from city to 
city and from church to church. The times 
were ripe for the introduction of Sunday 
schools, and God had ready the man who 
was to be His agent for its accomplishment. 
Among those who heartily seconded Raikes's 
work and co-operated with him were William 
Fox, Hannah More, William . Wilberforce 
and John Wesley. 

The Sunday school cause was, however, 
to meet with the most stubborn opposition 
from high ecclesiastical circles. There were 
those who thought they saw evil tendencies 
in it. They regarded it as an innovation and 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 25 

without merit. They were outspoken in their 
opposition. Leaders within the Congre- 
gational, Presbyterian and Established 
Churches stood out against it. The arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Roches- 
ter, and others attacked the system. Con- 
ferences were called for the purpose of de- 
vising means of stopping it. Besides, it was 
no easy task to provide money to pay all the 
teachers required. In many places, and even 
in Gloucester, the schools had to be closed 
for a time from lack of funds. It was not 
long, though, before this difficulty was over- 
come. Teachers were soon offering their 
services free, but not until many thousands 
of dollars had been paid out in salaries. 

Another difficulty arose, in addition to the 
unwillingness of official boards to grant their 
churches for Sunday school purposes, 
churches then standing had not been built 
with the material equipment necessary for 
running a Sunday school. Many schools 
were at first held in private homes, in halls, 
under railway arches, in attics and basements, 
or in any other place that was available. But 
not many years passed before the opposition 
began to die down, opponents becoming ear- 
nest advocates; and solution was found for 
the practical difficulties that stood in the way. 
The growth of the Sunday school movement 



26 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

has been so rapid, and the good accomplished 
by it so vast, that we are compelled to ascribe 
it, both in its rise and progress, to Providence. 

But why shall we call Robert Raikes the 
founder of the modern Sunday school? We 
saw that the germ of it lay way back in 
Judaism; that the synagogues had a com- 
plete system of religious education; that early 
Christianity had its church schools; that 
Luther and his coadjutors revived the prac- 
tice of popular religious education; that 
Spener, Francke, Muhlenberg and many 
others had their Sunday schools many years 
before Raikes and almost identical with his. 
Why may history speak of him as its 
founder ? 

You will observe he is spoken of as the 
founder of the modern Sunday school. He 
is entitled to this honor : ( 1 ) Because while 
Sunday schools existed prior to the inception 
of his work, they were isolated and discon- 
nected the one from the other, not any one 
of them giving rise to any general movement; 
(2) because under him, after nearly a cen- 
tury and a half of spiritual barrenness, in- 
terest in religion was revived and the moral 
sense of the people quickened; (3) because 
he was the first to roll the so-called Sunday 
school u idea into the world and have it catch 
fire." He saw its possibilities; he was a 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 27 

prophet; he compelled others to see the 
greater school of the future; the schools 
of many of his predecessors ended in them- 
selves, "while the schools he founded suc- 
ceeded in giving birth to new ideals and 
taking such hold on the minds and sympa- 
thies of men as to secure their continuity and 
their unbroken development" ; (4) because 
his wise and consecrated activity was the 
means of developing a popular impulse for 
the studying of God's word, in a systematic 
manner, under competent teachers; (5) be- 
cause the Sunday school work, as we know 
it to-day, is traceable to Robert Raikes. 
When he had thoroughly tested his own plans 
he gave them currency through his Journal, 
and it seems as if half the world was waiting 
to learn of his experiments and put them into 
operation. 

The notion has become somewhat current 
that, because Raikes began his work by 
teaching reading and writing, and employed 
salaried teachers, and gave articles of toilet 
and apparel in addition to good books as re- 
wards, he was, therefore, prompted by secu- 
lar ambitions chiefly. This is not the case. 
He was a spiritually-minded man. His pri- 
vate correspondence shows that the impulse 
that moved him was born of love to Jesus 
Christ and a passion for the souls of men. 



28 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The movement he headed was essentially a 
religious one. He desired to remove the filth 
and rags of the sunken part of his city, but 
he also saw the urgent necessity of a deeper 
cleansing. Youthful profanity aroused him. 
He set himself to stem the rising tide of im- 
morality and ungodliness. He was the 
Lord's chosen instrument. He had compas- 
sion on the children of the slums. Having 
fed his own soul on the Bread of Life, he 
felt it his duty to feed others. 

3. The Introduction of the Sunday 
School Into America 
When the Sunday school, as founded and 
promoted by Robert Raikes, was imported 
to North America, it was planted in the 
world's richest soil. For, while there are 
about 30,000,000 officers, teachers and 
scholars in the World's Sunday School As- 
sociation, nearly 20,000,000 of these are in 
the United States and Canada. This repre- 
sents the growth of this organization in the 
northern half of the western hemisphere dur- 
ing less than a century and a quarter. Many 
of us are prepared to believe that the statis- 
tics convey a very inadequate impression of 
the full force and benefit of the Sunday 
school movement. It is impossible to reduce 
to cold figures the incalculable good that has 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 29 

been accomplished by the introduction of this 
institution among us. Though many of our 
people did not know it — and among these 
were some of the most godly — the religious 
condition existing in our midst sent out one 
mighty appeal for something like what 
Robert Raikes had begun. The soil was 
prepared. The need was here. 

It is by no means easy to say by whom, 
when and where the first Sunday school was 
introduced into the United States. There 
are many claimants for the honor. The 
credit probably goes to Bishop Asbury, of 
the Methodist Church; under his influence 
and direction a school was organized in Vir- 
ginia in 1786. There is no record as to how 
long it continued in existence. At Charles- 
ton, S. C, in 1790, the Methodist Confer- 
ence authorized the organization of Sunday 
schools, both for whites and blacks, with un- 
paid teachers. No actual work is traceable 
to this action. There is every reason to be- 
lieve that not a few schools, founded in the 
last two decades of the eighteenth century, 
soon ceased to exist for one reason or 
another. Opposition was stubborn and per- 
sistent in many instances, and church doors 
were closed against this infant organization. 
With the data at hand, it would seem that 
the first school in Philadelphia was organ- 



30 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

ized in 1791, in Boston in 1791, in New 
York in 1793, in Pittsburgh in 1800, and in 
Baltimore in 1804. 

Sunday schools did not multiply with any 
degree of rapidity until societies were formed 
for the systematic promotion of the move- 
ment. The first of these was effected in 
Philadelphia, when a dozen Christian busi- 
ness men met for the purpose of considering 
the wisdom of establishing Sunday schools 
in the city. This was on December 17, 1790. 
In less than a month the organization was 
perfected and an effort made to plant schools. 
At the first, as in England, paid teachers 
were employed. The instruction was mostly 
from the Bible, in reading and writing, and 
for the purpose of securing "a reformation 
of morals and manners and a better observ- 
ance of the Sabbath.'' This body was known 
as the First Day or Sunday School Society. 
Similar organizations sprang up in other 
cities and states, and soon the Sunday school 
had secured considerable momentum. Prac- 
tically all denominations were represented in 
these provincial societies. 

There came to prevail ere long a feeling 
that wider co-operation was imperative if 
the largest results of the movement were to 
be obtained. In consequence of this senti- 
ment the Philadelphia Sunday School and 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 31 

Adult Union was organized on May 26, 
1817. The union did effective work in at 
least ten states, and came to be recognized 
as the most potent Sunday school force in 
the land. 

Seven years later, in 1824, this Union and 
other bodies were merged into the American 
Sunday School Union, which, in a few years, 
will celebrate its centennial anniversary. Its 
dominant purpose from the beginning has 
been "to endeavor to plant a Sunday school 
wherever there is a population." The for- 
mation of this union has proved to be a 
master stroke of wisdom and the means of 
widening the channels for the dissemination 
of religious education. We have some idea 
of the scope of its work when its officers tell 
us that in the past eighty-six years the Amer- 
ican Sunday School Union has organized 
121,038 schools — almost four for every day 
of every year — into which have been gath- 
ered more than 5,000,000 teachers and 
scholars. Whether or not the field of the 
Union is being contracted because of the in- 
creased denominational activity and efficiency, 
I cannot say, but there will be none to dis- 
sent from the statement that this organiza- 
tion has been, for three generations, one of 
the most potential factors in American Chris- 
tianity. Its distribution of religious litera- 



32 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

ture, including Bibles and Testaments, totals 
millions upon millions of dollars' worth. 

It may be of interest to learn something 
of the origin of Lutheran Sunday schools 
in the United States. But this preliminary 
word first: Time and time again we have 
heard it said that Lutherans are slow. Fre- 
quently, we must confess, the shoe has been 
a perfect fit. True, we were not among the 
first to introduce the Stmday school into our 
churches. But this was not owing to our 
being slow, but to our being in the lead. 
Our congregations were the ones to need it 
least. We had been doing, for long years, 
practically the same thing, for we were teach- 
ing the Bible in the children's school, paro- 
chial school and catechetical class. Many of 
the pastors preached on Sunday and taught 
the children the Bible and the catechism on 
weekdays. The instruction of the young in 
matters of faith and morals was no new 
thing among us. The Lutheran ministers 
who had charge of the work in its begin- 
nings in this country needed not to be im- 
pressed with the importance of the religious 
training of the young. They did this work 
as well as the largeness of the field, the 
scarcity of helpers and the inadequate means 
would permit. 

Two German Sunday schools were organ- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 33 

ized in Philadelphia in 1804 and 1805. The 
first one was connected with the congrega- 
tion of St. Michael's and Zion Church, and 
the second one grew into St. Paul's German 
Church. There is a strong probability that 
Sunday schools were started in Lutheran 
congregations in the South as early as 1812- 
1815. An abbreviated report of the sessions 
of the North Carolina Synod, in 1811 and 
1812, shows that schools were encouraged 
and that circulars were sent to the congre- 
gations advocating the introduction of this 
work. 

A Lutheran school was organized in Christ 
Church, York, Pa., in 1819; in Zion Church, 
Harrisburg, 1819, and in St. John's Church, 
Philadelphia, 1821. It will be seen that the 
Sunday school movement was in its initial 
stage in Lutheran congregations at the time 
of the organization of the General Synod 
in 1820, the first general body of Lutherans 
in America. 

Sunday schools were of comparatively 
slow growth among us up until 1840, about 
which time St. Matthew's and St. James's 
Churches, New York City, and other influ- 
ential congregations introduced the work. 
The latest statistics credit the Lutheran 
Sunday schools of America with 1,019,911 
members — the General Synod having 311,- 



34 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

222; the General Council, 321,945; the Syn. 
odical Conference, 157,645; the United 
Synod South, 40,412, and the independent 
Synods, 188,687. It must be kept in mind 
that many of our foreign-speaking Lutheran 
congregations maintain a parochial school, 
in which the Bible and the catechism have 
a prominent place. That accounts, in large 
measure, for the comparatively small Sunday 
school enrollment in many German churches. 
But no matter what the language, location 
or obstacles in the way, it is an unusual thing 
to find a church that does not have a Sunday 
school under its care. The one question 
which most presses itself upon us to-day is 
not the organization of schools, but the best 
way to operate them so that they may ac- 
complish most for the kingdom of Christ. 

4. The Evolution of Sunday School 
Lesson Courses 
The question of lesson courses constitutes 
one of the most important problems of the 
Sunday school. From the very beginning 
of the movement, the titles, scheme and ar- 
rangement of the lessons have concerned all 
thoughtful students. The best wisdom of 
educators and of practical Christian men has 
been brought to bear upon the solution of 
the question of a proper Sunday school cur- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 35 

riculum, about which there has been and is 
to-day a vast divergence of opinion. Schol- 
arship has never been a unit at this point. 

In this work, as in every other, there are 
some men who are far in advance of their 
time. They are dreamers. They live in the 
uncreated days. And so long as almost a 
century ago there were those who thought 
and openly declared that methods and prin- 
ciples should be immediately introduced 
which we are just now beginning to realize. 
Teacher-training and a graded system had 
their warm advocates two generations ago. 
There is nothing new under the sun. 

The Sunday school lesson course has had 
a most interesting development. It had its 
origin amid things crude, imperfect and un- 
satisfying. It partook of the times which 
gave it birth. We dare not judge its begin- 
nings by its standards of to-day. A com- 
parison would provoke a smile. All along 
the course of its historical development im- 
mediate needs and conditions determined its 
policies. There were six distinct steps in the 
progress of lesson building from the days 
of Robert Raikes unto the present time. 

/. The Primer Lessons. At the begin- 
ning of the Sunday school movement, secu- 
lar education was in its infancy. Public 
schools, as we understand them, were scarcely 



36 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

known. Ignorance was everywhere preva- 
lent. The mass of young people could neither 
read nor write. Little effort was made to 
gather the poor together and to educate them 
to be good and useful citizens. The origin 
of the Sunday school vitally concerned the 
prosperity of the state. Before it could im- 
part religious instruction and place the Bible 
in the hands of its pupils, it had to teach 
them the rudiments of spelling, reading and 
writing. As soon as possible, lessons in the 
Bible and catechism were assigned. One of 
the first things Raikes did was to prepare 
for general use a manual of one hundred and 
twenty-five pages, containing twenty-five ele- 
mentary lessons. As the public school sys- 
tem became perfected it assumed more of 
the responsibility for the general education 
of the youth, and allowed the Sunday schools 
to give themselves almost wholly to spiritual 
instruction. During this period there was no 
uniformity of lessons. 

2. The Memory Lessons. When the Sun- 
day school was free to devote itself to the 
pursuit of religious education, it gave the 
utmost encouragement to the memorizing of 
Scripture. Rewards were offered and aston- 
ishing results obtained. It was not unusual 
for scholars to come prepared to recite hun- 
dreds of verses and sometimes whole books 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 37 

of the Bible. Little time was left for giving 
the sense of anything that had been com- 
mitted. The partial failure of this method 
soon became apparent. It tended to prodig- 
ious feats of memory, but to little instruc- 
tion in the way of life. This condition ob- 
tained even though the session of the school 
was prolonged for several hours. When 
possible, questions were asked and stories 
related. While the memory work was car- 
ried to extremes, it is worthy of remark that 
the memorizing of Scripture verses has be- 
come a permanent part of every system that 
has been promulgated. 

5. The First Uniform Lessons. The 
work of the Sunday school was yet primitive. 
It was clearly experimental. Its leaders were 
groping for the light. While no attempt had 
so far been made toward general uniformity, 
the tendency was in that direction. Schools 
of the same city or community were coming 
to adopt the same lessons and methods, and 
it was a growing conviction in the minds of 
many of the pioneers that it would be a dis- 
tinct step forward if all classes in all schools 
would make use of the same lessons at the 
same time. Sunday school unions in our own 
country were among the first to systemati- 
cally popularize this idea. Their efforts 
soon gained ground, taking definite shape in 



38 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

1824. At the first there was a one year's 
course, then a two years', and, later, a five 
years' course. A popular and extensive body 
of literature grew up around these courses. 
The American Sunday School Union played 
a conspicuous part in the development and 
propagation of the limited uniform system. 
Usually from ten to twenty verses consti- 
tuted a lesson. 

4. The Denominational Lessons. By the 
middle of the last century a strong denomi- 
national consciousness was developing. Sys- 
tematic Bible study in the Sunday school 
helped to bring this about. Neglected 
creeds were being revalued. The deadly 
wave of rationalism was beginning to wane. 
Denominations, as such, felt they could best 
do their own work in their own way. Un- 
christian rivalries and jealousies were not 
wanting. Conservatism was reasserting it- 
self. Distinctive doctrines arose to their 
earlier emphasis. The more influential de- 
nominations prepared their own system of 
lessons with the interpretation thereof. 
These numerous systems were termed in 
certain quarters "Babel Systems." In the 
meanwhile the limited uniform system was 
being pushed. But the period was one in 
which the various bodies of believers saw 
anew their responsibility and opportunity, 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 39 

and advanced their own interests. 

5. The International Uniform Lessons. 
April 18, 1872, was the birthday of the Uni- 
form Lessons, and is esteemed by many to be 
the greatest day in all the history of the Sun- 
day school movement. The task of con- 
structing a cycle of lessons that would give 
anything like universal satisfaction was a 
stupendous one. Insuperable difficulties 
threw themselves in the way. At one time 
the project was abandoned. But through the 
personal influence and heroic efforts of B. F. 
Jacobs, the heart's desire of multitudes was 
realized. The original plan was to cover 
the Bible in a cycle of seven years, dividing 
the time equally between the Old and New 
Testaments. This method was pursued for 
three cycles, or twenty-one years. Since that 
time six years constitute a cycle, three and a 
half years being given to the New Testament 
and two and a half to the Old. In that period 
the whole Bible is supposed to be covered 
in such a manner as to bring out its principal 
historical facts and spiritual truths. Each 
cycle is substantially the same as the preced- 
ing one. This must necessarily be so. In 
this course the American and British Sections 
of the Lesson Committee have agreed upon 
the same system of lessons. In commenda- 
tion of the Uniform Series this may truth- 



40 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

fully be affirmed; it has won the*approval of 
the overwhelming majority of the Sunday 
school hosts of Protestant Christendom. 
For forty-four years it has held the right of 
way. This does not say that the system is 
perfect — far from it. It is but the impartial 
statement of an historical fact. 

6. The International Graded Lessons. 
Without entering into the genesis of the 
graded lessons, suffice it to say that they are 
in existence and have attained considerable 
popular favor because of the profound con- 
viction of an aggressive section of Sunday 
school lesson builders and students of child 
nurture. Though preliminary work of al- 
most a decade had been done, it was not until 
the meeting of the International Sunday 
School Association at Denver, in June, 1902, 
that the graded system received anything like 
general recognition, though the principle of 
it was widely accepted. Committees were 
appointed to develop and perfect the pro- 
posed scheme. The work has gone rapidly 
forward, so that now we have a two years' 
course for beginners, a three years' course 
for the primary, and a four years' course 
each for the junior, intermediate and senior 
departments, making in all a seventeen years' 
course, carrying the pupil from the kinder- 
garten age of four to twenty-one years. The 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 41 

selection of the graded lessons has been in 
the hands of the International Lesson Com- 
mittee. The first scheme of lessons con- 
tained no small amount of extra-Biblical 
material, such as historical, missionary and 
biographical studies. This venture of the 
committee called forth a storm of protest, 
the result of which was the selection of a 
parallel series of lessons based entirely upon 
Bible passages. Both are presented as op- 
tional courses. The British Section of the 
committee has never accepted the graded les- 
sons in circulation on this side of the water. 
They have provided their own course, which 
is much simpler. 

All of the larger bodies of Lutherans in 
this country have their own system of les- 
sons, with the exception of the General Synod 
and the United Synod of the South. Some 
of these systems have been in use for years, 
are well developed and quite satisfactory. 

5. The International Uniform and 
Graded Lesson Systems 
The question of Sunday school lesson 
courses is a vital one to the General Synod 
to-day, and, in fact, to the whole Lutheran 
Church in this country. There is a feeling 
of dissatisfaction here and there which must 
and will be met. The General Synod, at its 



42 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

convention in Washington, D. C, in 1911, 
passed a resolution authorizing its Sunday 
School Committee to enter into conference 
with other English-speaking Lutheran bodies 
for the consideration of a common Lutheran 
Sunday school literature. Two years later 
this action was reaffirmed, and the committee 
vested with authority and instructed to pro- 
ceed conjointly with other Lutheran bodies 
in the construction of a series of Sunday 
school lessons. Two years later still similar 
action was taken, and the committee author- 
ized to proceed with the preparation and 
publication of these common lessons. In 
neither case was this action hastily taken. 
It was the deliberate conviction of the cleri- 
cal and lay representatives from all over our 
Church that something can be produced 
which will be more in harmony with our 
spirit and doctrine than what we are using 
at the present time. To the momentous task 
of creating such a literature the General 
Synod will be bending its energies in the 
years to come. The action referred to in this 
paragraph and the statements there made 
lead us to a consideration of the two lesson 
systems so generally in use among us. 

There are two systems of lessons in use 
in our body, the Uniform and the Graded, 
both of which are selected and promoted 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 43 

by the International Association. Each has 
its ardent friends, and each has made for it- 
self a warm place in the hearts of our Sun- 
day school leaders and workers. It is our 
purpose to indicate, very impartially, the 
strength and the weakness of both systems. 
Some of the best talent in two hemispheres 
has unstintingly devoted itself to the crea- 
tion and improvement of lesson systems, 
which, it was hoped, would meet the needs 
of the Sunday school world. That they have 
not given us a perfect scheme does not sur- 
prise us. We are pressing on in the hope 
that we might attain. 

The Uniform lessons came into being in 
1872, and for these forty-four years have 
constituted the course of Bible study used in 
the vast majority of our schools. The Sun- 
day School Committee, in a recent report to 
the General Synod, says : "We rejoice in the 
blessed work accomplished through the In- 
ternational Uniform Movement. We are 
loath to take any steps that would even indi- 
cate a purpose to separate ourselves from 
that movement." However strong may be 
our conviction that the Uniform system does 
not measure to Lutheran requirements, we 
would be untrue to our hearts' promptings 
did we not acknowledge the unique place it 
has filled in our Church. 



44 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Wherein is it strong? It offers one lesson 
for study at one time by all the schools the 
world over. There is inspiration at least 
in the thought that probably 20,000,000 
pupils are studying the same passage of 
Scripture on the same day. It makes a 
teacher's meeting possible, for all use the 
same lesson. It gives unity of thought to the 
entire school, and permits the superintendent 
and others to select the hymns and build the 
prayers around this central thought. It 
places but one lesson in the home, where one 
lesson is more likely to be studied than 
many. It popularizes Bible study, for with 
one lesson the daily press may become and is 
becoming a mighty factor in disseminating 
religious truth. It has been the means of 
creating a voluminous literature on the Bible, 
and of enlisting in its service men of the most 
brilliant gifts and unquestionable consecra- 
tion from all denominations. It has pre- 
sented to the unbelieving world an illustra- 
tion of interdenominational fellowship and 
spiritual unity that surpasses anything hither- 
to known. 

Wherein is it weak? There are three 
serious, if not fatal, indictments to be brought 
against the Uniform system. First, it vio- 
lates the fundamental principles of religious 
pedagogy and psychology in assigning one 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 45 

lesson to all grades irrespective of age, con- 
dition or degree of mental development. 
There are lessons which it is next to impos- 
sible to teach to small children. Second, the 
Uniform system has been the prevailing 
course of lessons in Protestantism for well- 
nigh fifty years, and yet the ignorance of the 
Bible, even among those who have been in 
our schools for years, is as deplorable as it 
is alarming. The results have not been satis- 
factory. Third, the Uniform system opens 
the door of our Sunday schools and of our 
homes to lesson writers whose views, to say 
the least, are neither Lutheran nor evangel- 
ical. Not all who get hold of such literature 
can discriminate between the safe and the 
unsafe, the true and the false. 

What of the Graded system? On it the 
Sunday School Committee of the General 
Synod happily says: "There can be no ques- 
tion but that the Graded lessons for instruc- 
tion in the Sunday school rest upon right 
principles. The new International Graded 
Lesson System is admirable in many re- 
spects." It is in accord with the best rules 
of pedagogy. It believes in furnishing milk 
for babes and meat for strong men. It is an 
effort to meet the pupil on his level. It does 
not try to adapt the mind to the truth, but 
the truth to the mind. It is an attempt to 



46 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

carry over into religious education the meth- 
ods that have proved so successful in secular 
education. It combines both the topical and 
the textual methods of study. It aims "to 
meet the spiritual needs of the pupil in each 
stage of his development." It provides a 
distinct line of study for each year, thus giv- 
ing the pupil something new to look forward 
to and sustaining his interest. It accentu- 
ates the impartation of knowledge through 
the hand and eye as well as through the ear. 
Because of its pedagogical soundness it ap- 
peals to public school teachers and enlists 
many of them. 

But the Graded system, too, has its weak- 
nesses. To our mind it emphasizes peda- 
gogy at the expense of the Scripture. (Dr. 
A. B. Van Ormer's splendid work on the in- 
termediate lessons is excepted.) There is not 
a little loose and destructive handling of the 
Bible. It exhibits tendencies which we as 
Lutherans cannot accept. Its errors of omis- 
sion are as serious as those of commission. 
It has been prepared for all denominations 
and is scarcely satisfactory to any, having 
been to all intents and purposes virtually set 
aside by several of the largest. It is weak 
on sin, regeneration, conversion, the sacra- 
ments and kindred cardinal subjects. Its 
method of interpretation is too naturalistic. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 47 

Over against its skillful arrangement and at- 
tractive appearance must be set its doctrinal 
weakness. The sacraments are symbols only. 
Then, too, it is too complex. It is a practical 
impossibility for many schools, more espe- 
cially for the smaller ones; and even some 
of the largest and best equipped are going 
back to the Uniform system. It sends too 
many lessons into the home. It tends to de- 
stroy unity and co-operation. It makes it 
difficult to secure teachers. 

I know how pitiably inadequate is this 
treatment of two lesson systems that have 
meant and will continue to mean much to 
our Church. Space forbids anything more 
than a mere outline, which can readily be 
amplified by the reader. My purpose has 
been to show with the utmost candor that 
while both these courses are good, they are 
not the best. They are defective and need 
remedying. We believe in the motto, "Prove 
all things; hold fast that which is good." It 
will be the conscientious aim of the General 
Synod in whatever it does to retain, in so far 
as possible, everything that has proved use- 
ful, and to discard all that has been faulty. 
Experience is a fan, separating the wheat 
from the chaff. 

I dare not anticipate what the General 
Synod Committee will do. But I may say 



48 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

this : No scheme of lessons and no body of 
lesson literature will be acceptable to the 
Lutheran Church that is not absolutely loyal 
to the word of God. Material in this in- 
stance takes precedence to method, though 
we do not decry method. It is incumbent 
upon us to provide for our constituency, with 
which God has entrusted us, a literature that 
is in harmony with the doctrines of our 
Church. If this object can be attained best 
by the preparation of a system of lessons 
that shall bear the Lutheran imprint, our 
duty is clear; and it becomes doubly clear if 
it will be the means of bringing closer to- 
gether the English-speaking Lutherans of this 
country. It is doubtful if a more critical 
moment, a moment fraught with larger pos- 
sibility of gain or loss, has confronted our 
Church in the last twenty-five years, than this 
one. We need soberness, and, above all, the 
wisdom God's Spirit alone can impart. 

Thus we see that the Sunday school is not 
a reckless upstart, or an intruder. It has not 
been thrust upon the Church as a burden, but 
providentially given her as wings. It has 
come among us as a helper, and deserves a 
place. While as to the methods by which 
it does its work it changes with each decade ; 
in essence and principle it is as old as the 
race and as wide as the world. 



II 



THE PLACE OF THE SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 

This is an important question, and vital 
to the highest welfare of both school and 
Church. Our theory at this point is better 
than our practice. The co-ordination of the 
two organizations has not been carefully 
considered in certain quarters, and, as a re- 
sult, they sustain an indifferent relationship 
to each other, lacking in sympathy and 
working co-operation. 

The origin of the Sunday school under 
Raikes was unfortunate in this : It began its 
eventful career outside the Church. True, 
Raikes and those who seconded his experi- 
ments and built upon his foundations were 
Christian men, members of the Church, but 
the schools they organized were not related 
to the Church, had no direct contact with the 
Church, and were held in other than church 
buildings. Perhaps the deadening formality 
of the Church had something to do with this, 
but probably the fact that the movement as 
it began was as much educational, philan- 
thropic and moral as it was religious had 

49 



50 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

more to do with its independent origination. 
Raikes looked upon his work in its initial 
stages as an "act of civilization." Be the 
causes what they may, the fact remains, and, 
in consequence, many of the leaders among 
the clergy and laity took an openly hostile 
attitude toward it. John Wesley was far- 
seeing enough to welcome the new-born or- 
ganization into the Church, and urged pas- 
tors and laymen to appropriate and use the 
work Raikes had begun. He saw in the 
Sunday school a bundle of possibilities for 
the Church of the future. 

But we have never quite overcome the 
tendency of the Sunday school to swing off 
from the Church. In spite of the earnest 
efforts to relate the two, each goes its own 
way all too much. So we find to-day that 
"Sunday schools among all Christian bodies 
exist almost as independent and individual 
units in church life, rather than as integral, 
well-articulated parts of the machinery of 
a properly organized system/' 

However, it should be said that when the 
Sunday school was imported to America, it 
at once found a home in the Church, was wel- 
comed, approved and fostered by the Church, 
with some exceptions. So that from the very 
beginning it became the handmaiden of the 
Church. We have not, therefore, experi- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 51 

enced the difficulty in relating this organiza- 
tion to the work of the local congregations 
and to the interests of the denominations as 
a whole as did England. That may account 
in no small measure for the phenomenal 
success of the Sunday school propaganda in 
this continent, two-thirds of the world's Sun- 
day school enrollment being in North Amer- 
ica. 

We do well in our personal thinking to ar- 
rive at correct ideas as to the relation that 
should exist between the Church and the 
Sunday school. This is fundamental. We 
cannot go forward to the success that may 
be ours unless we are clear on this point. 
If sympathy and co-operation be wanting, 
both will be immeasurably weakened. 

I. What the Sunday School Is Not 
j. // Is Not a Substitute 

None will deny that hundreds and thou- 
sands of people regard the Sunday school 
as their church. They openly declare they 
have done their duty when they attend its 
sessions. And this applies to adults. The 
school is held in the church building, the 
Bible is studied, hymns sung and prayers of- 
fered, and they cannot see why it is not just 
as good as the church service. But they 
must be made to see. The Christian Church 



52 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

needs no substitute, and can tolerate none. 
She is of divine origin, and man can put noth- 
ing in her place. If we have but one hour 
at our disposal it should be spent at the 
church service, no matter what our personal 
feeling or preference may be. 

2. It Is Not Another Church 

When Jesus was on earth He said, "Upon 
this rock I will build my Church." So that 
the Church is one, not two. Loyalty to the 
Church implies loyalty to the school, and 
loyalty to the school just as strongly implies 
loyalty to the Church. They are not rivals, 
or competitors, each standing over against 
the other. To the Church has been entrusted 
the preaching of the gospel and the adminis- 
tration of the sacraments. The Church is 
the older and superior institution, and has 
a divine origin and sanction which cannot be 
predicated of the school as an organization, 
and without which the school never would 
have been born. For all efforts to promote 
Bible study, to secure a better observance of 
the Lord's Day, and to improve the moral 
and religious life, have sprung from the 
Church. 

j. TV Is Not an Independent Organization 

The relation of the Sunday school to the 
Church is that of child to parent, of branch 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 53 

to tree, of part to whole. That the school 
meets under the roof of the local church in- 
dicates its origin and ought to encourage, 
yea, impel, an intimate relationship. Those 
who feel that the school would make greater 
progress if it were independent of the con- 
gregation need to be set right. That would 
ere long happen which Jesus said would 
happen to a branch when severed from the 
tree. All tendencies to reduce the spirit of 
cordial co-operation and mutual helpfulness 
between the congregation and the school will 
in the end work harm. The spirit of democ- 
racy to be found in the school, and the con- 
stant lament that the room is overcrowded 
and more space is needed for the growing 
numbers, while the church service is all too 
often sparsely attended, make the task of 
keeping the school subordinate to the con- 
gregation a difficult one. The son may grow 
to be larger than his father, nevertheless he 
remains the son. The size of the school and 
the vast amount of work it does do not give 
it the right to run away with authority. 

4. It Is Not an Institution 

We are in the habit of calling the Sunday 
school an institution, and we shall continue 
to do so. But if we were clear in our think- 
ing and accurate in our use of terms we 



54 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

would apply this title to the Church alone. 
The Christian Church is the institution for 
the public propagation of the gospel. The 
Sunday school is an agency of the Church, 
just as the Young People's Society, the Broth- 
erhood and the Missionary Society are agen- 
cies. They are channels through which the 
Church gives expression to her life and car- 
ries out her divine commission. They are 
special activities of that one institution into 
whose life we have been baptized and at 
whose altar we have been fed. 

While speaking of the tendency of the 
school to get out of step with the congrega- 
tion with which it is connected, and to think 
of itself as an independent organization, it 
may not be out of place to indicate another 
danger. This time it is the organized class. 
Every society that has possibilities has perils 
also. The organization of classes in the 
Senior and Adult departments is to be en- 
couraged, but such classes must have their 
highest interests safeguarded or they will 
come to think of themselves as so many 
schools within the school. They have their 
president and other officers, and chairmen 
of committees, and feel dependent on no 
other person or organization. They are 
often self-sufficient and self-satisfied, with 
little regard or enthusiasm for the school 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 55 

as a whole; and are loath to take in- 
struction from the pastor or superin- 
tendent. In some cases they have objected 
to turning their offerings over to the Sunday 
school treasurer. Each class, whether large 
or small, whether of adults or children, 
whether in the same room or in separate 
rooms, whether organized or unorganized, 
is a constituent part of the school. There 
must be no friction, no aloofness, no indif- 
ference to the good of the school as a whole. 
The organization of classes among young 
people and adults has brought new life to 
many schools. Each class is an integral part 
of, and must be kept en rapport with the 
larger organization. The only objection I 
have heard to the organized class is that 
sometimes it fosters a spirit of semi-inde- 
pendence, and, therefore, weakens the school 
bond. Even the large men's and women's 
organized classes should be kept in as close 
touch with the school as conditions and the 
best class work will permit. It is utterly 
selfish for any class to think that its comfort 
and good alone are to be considered in the 
operation of a Sunday school, where often 
our personal wishes and even our rights have 
to be surrendered. We have gained much in 
the building of separate class rooms, but we 
have lost something too. The unity of the 



56 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

school is not so easily preserved. Somehow 
we must make the feelings of mutual interest 
penetrate curtains and doors. 

But let us return to our original line of 
thought. We have seen that the Church 
and Sunday school are not rival organiza- 
tions. We have seen that the school is a part 
of the Church, belongs to the Church, and 
moves within the sphere of the Church. 
Whatever we may do to strengthen the 
friendly and helpful feelings between them 
will be a genuine contribution toward the ad- 
vancement of the kingdom. 

But a question of no less importance than 
the one just considered requires attention. 
We have been thinking of the school from 
the negative point of view. We have tried 
to show what the school is not. Now the 
more important question arises : What is the 
Sunday school? 

II. What the Sunday School Is 
The answer to this question will show two 
things : ( 1 ) That the Church has for a long 
time had a high conception of the worth of 
the Sunday school; and (2) that the leaders 
in the Sunday school movement have always 
thought of it as intimately and vitally con- 
nected with the Church, and existing only 
for her good. The phrases coined in the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 57 

effort to define the function of the Sunday 
school are not all of equal merit, but no one 
of them is wholly wrong. There has been 
an evolution of thought concerning this or- 
ganization, and naturally there has been an 
improvement in our terminology. 

/. It Is the Children's Church 

The reader will object to this definition 
just as the writer does, but we are consider- 
ing existing conditions and facts, and not 
wishes and ideals. And the school is going 
to remain the children's church, however 
much we may protest against it, until a revo- 
lution in thought and conduct is effected. 
Three things have served to affix this un- 
fortunate name upon the Sunday school : ( 1 ) 
Until a decade or two ago the schools were 
composed of children, about the only adults 
present being officers and teachers; (2) few 
children are attending the preaching services 
in God's house, and unless the Sunday school 
is their church for a goodly number of years 
they in reality have none, for the time they 
begin attending the principal services of the 
church is about confirmation age; (3) since 
few children are found at the church services, 
Sunday school leaders have endeavored to 
make the order of service of the school as 
much like that of the congregation as possible, 



58 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

so that the children might get from their 
service what the adults receive from theirs. 
It is doubtless true that the children's 
church is the most unfortunate and unsatis- 
factory definition given the school. It is 
partial and misleading, and leaves the im- 
pression that the children are not expected 
to attend the chief services of God's house. 
On the contrary, they ought to be considered 
a part of the general congregation, coming 
with their parents to the united worship, sit- 
ting in the family pew, and being trained in 
the habits of church-going. But, as a matter 
of fact, how many unconfirmed children are 
found at the public worship of the Church to 
which you belong? We are not living in an 
ideal age. Conditions are not what we would 
like to see. But let us be thankful that we 
have the children in the Sunday school, the 
school of the Church, that the Bible is being 
taught them, that they are being instructed 
in right habits of worship; but, not being 
satisfied with that, pray and labor to the end 
that they may early become participants in 
the worship of the sanctuary. The Sunday 
school is no substitute for the Church, never 
was intended to be and never can be. 

2. It Is the Nursery of the Church 

This conception of the school is suggest- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 59 

ive, and points in the direction of great 
truths, especially dear to us Lutherans, who 
emphasize the imperative necessity of early 
religious training. Holding as we do that 
preservation is infinitely better than rescue, 
a cardinal principle with us has been the 
Christian nurture of the young. Now a 
nursery is a place set apart for the use and 
occupation of children. It implies tender 
care, proper oversight and faithful training. 
There is no other place where a church may 
find so many of her children gathered to- 
gether as in the Sunday school. It is there, 
too, that religious ideals are fostered, spir- 
itual growth is promoted, and faithful shep- 
herding is given. Multitudes of children and 
young people have been saved from spiritual 
death because of the attention and instruc- 
tion the school gave them. It has been a 
lifeboat to perishing souls. 

The Sunday school, however, is not a 
nursery in the sense that it is the place where 
"irritated, selfish parents may send their chil- 
dren to be rid of them." That is a low idea 
of the school which views it merely as "better 
than the streets. " It is not here for the pur- 
pose of relieving parents of their respon- 
sibility. 

Neither is it a nursery in the sense that 
it is for children only. The term has become 



60 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

objectionable in these later years especially, 
because our schools are filling up with young 
men and women and adults. And these are 
not particularly pleased to be told that the 
religious institution to which they belong is 
a nursery. They may be young in the faith, 
babes in Christ, but they desire to be thought 
of and dealt with as men and women. All 
partial and restrictive terms must be used 
with care, and our conception of the place 
and function of the school enlarged to keep 
pace with the growing service it is rendering. 

J. It Is the Recruiting Station of the Church 

This definition of the Sunday school is 
somewhat justified when we remember that 
from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent of 
the accessions to the Protestant churches of 
North America come through the Sunday 
school. This does not mean that none of 
these would have been won without the co- 
operation of the school. Where home train- 
ing is what it should be, and catechetical 
work is faithfully carried on, there will al- 
ways be large accessions. Nevertheless, if 
any pastor keeps an accurate record of the 
forces at work in the lives of those he re- 
ceives into church membership, he will be im- 
pressed with the contribution his school has 
made. He is always getting those into his 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 61 

catechetical classes whom he never could 
have hoped to reach except through the in- 
fluence of teachers and other school associa- 
tions. It is impossible to say how great the 
number of those for whom the school is the 
stepping-stone to the church, but that the 
number is great is very patent. One of. the 
broadest fields of activity for the adult 
classes is the winning of men for Christ. The 
Sunday school in all its departments is enlist- 
ing those who will enter into the service of 
the church. Where there is a growing Sun- 
day school there will be, under normal con- 
ditions, a growing church. The school does 
not exist for itself, but is a feeder of the 
church. 

This word of caution — the figure of the 
recruiting station, we believe, over-empha- 
sizes the matter of numbers. Such a place 
is where men are enlisted but not trained, 
and, therefore, the figure cannot be made 
go on all fours for our Sunday schools. Here 
and there are schools that have gone hyster- 
ical over numbers. Their slogan is, "Every 
person in the community enrolled in the Sun- 
day school." How catchy and plausible it 
does seem ! How worthy the effort of every- 
one ! But the danger is that we shall keep 
our eyes fixed so steadfastly upon this goal 
as to overlook an order of procedure, a pro- 



62 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

gram of religious education so solid and so 
worth while that the people of the commu- 
nity cannot afford to remain away. It is well 
and good to augment our numbers, but what 
are we going to do with them when we have 
them? In other words, are we giving an 
honest proportion of our thought and energy 
toward the sound religious development of 
those entrusted to our care ? Enlisting them 
is one thing, holding them is quite another; 
and we will lose fewer of those we have 
when we build up a curriculum, a method, an 
esprit de corps, that challenges their interest 
and lodges within them a compelling power. 
A school is no further on if each time it en- 
rolls a scholar it loses one; and it is very 
little farther on if when it enrolls two it 
loses one. I am pleading for the pupil who 
comes to our schools. He needs us as much 
as the one on the outside does. We have not 
discharged our full duty when we enroll him. 
Then our real work begins. The school must 
be a recruiting station and training school 
combined. 

4. It Is an Evangelizing Force 

To evangelize means to proclaim and 
teach the gospel of Christ, but especially with 
the view of converting to Christianity. If 
our Lutheran schools are taking advantage 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 63 

of all their opportunities they have gathered 
into them some pupils at least who are not 
Christians. The great unchurched and un- 
saved masses of people in our neighborhood 
belong to our field as much as to that of 
any other denomination. It is our duty to 
seek to win them to Christ. Our schools 
have not done their share in the evangeliza- 
tion of the unsaved about their doors. We 
have stressed the baptism and Christian nur- 
ture of children, and so far we have done 
our duty. But that is only part of the Great 
Commission. 

It is likely true that in all departments 
of the school are those who need to be born 
again. To all such the school is an evan- 
gelizing agency, for it has the Bible, which 
is the evangelizing power. Certainly the 
Lutheran school can do two things : it can 
with one hand hold those who become 
Christ's through baptism, and with the other 
hand it can bring the unsaved to a saving 
knowledge of Him. That conception of the 
school which looks upon it as an evangeliz- 
ing force is not the least inconsistent with 
our Lutheran conception of the relation of 
the baptized child to the Church. This is 
no advocacy of Decision Day, or of any in- 
discriminate appeal to a class or a school to 
choose Christ. We owe something to the 



64 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

unsaved about our doors as well as to the 
non-Christians in India and Africa. So long 
as there is one person in the school who is 
not saved, that school must be an evangeliz- 
ing force if it is anything. For the gospel 
that keeps the saved is the gospel that con- 
verts the unsaved. The school that is not 
evangelistic is not evangelical. This subject 
will receive additional treatment farther on. 

5. // Is the Church of the Future 

There is prophecy in this definition, but 
prophecy back of which lies a century and 
more of illuminating history. The church 
of to-day was the Sunday school of yesterday, 
and the Sunday school of to-day will be the 
church of to-morrow. This could not be the 
case if the church and school were separate 
organizations. Those who are now receiv- 
ing instruction in the school and are being 
taught more fully the gospel of the Saviour, 
will, in a few years, take the place of their 
seniors and be bearing the responsibilities of 
the congregation. 

When Jesus looked on Peter for the first 
time, He said, "Thou art . . . thou shalt 
be." When we look into a school and see 
the bright, eager faces of children and young 
people, we begin to dream about to-morrow 
and their relation to it, and about the Church 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 65 

and the part they will play in its extension. 
They are something to-day, to-morrow they 
will be something else, and, please God, some- 
thing more. The future of any church is 
written in its school. Where her young peo- 
ple, and older, too, are taught the word of 
God and reliance upon Jesus Christ, trained 
in service, and led to form correct views and 
habits of life, there the Church is built upon 
the rock. The pupils under your care and 
mine to-day will, with true shepherding, take 
an active place in the work of the Church 
that is to be. 

6. It Is the Bible School 

Almost from the beginning there were a 
few who thought this a more fitting desig- 
nation than Sunday school; but now the 
"few" have become a multitude. The Bible 
is the one and only text-book of the school. 
It is an unerring record of God's revelation 
to man through Jesus Christ. Of all the 
books crowding our libraries it alone tells us 
of the way of salvation, and becomes a chan- 
nel through which the power of the new 
life is communicated to sinful man. The 
Bible school is a name peculiarly dear to 
those who accept the Bible as God's word, 
and the only infallible rule of faith and prac- 
tice. A staggering protest went up a few 



66 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

years ago against a concerted effort to in- 
troduce into the Sunday schools lessons that 
were not taken from the Bible. It was not 
because there are not many religious sub- 
jects outside the Scriptures that we should 
be familiar with; but it was quite generally 
felt that inasmuch as the time for instruction 
in the school is only about thirty minutes, the 
whole of it should be given to the Book 
of books. The tendency anyhow among 
teachers is to run off to some irrelevant sub- 
ject and neglect the lesson assigned. Some 
pupils get no religious instruction except 
what they receive at Sunday school — and it 
should be our aim to pour as much of Bible 
truth into their minds and hearts as possible. 
The name Bible school further implies that 
Bibles be used in the school. But more of 
this later. 

7. 77 Is the Church Schoo„ 

This, to our mind, is the best definition of 
the Sunday school; it is the church school, 
the school of the church, the church assem- 
bled together studying the word of God. It 
is the educational department of the church. 
A Sunday school may be a Bible school with- 
out being connected with a church, or, at 
least, without close connection; but if it is a 
church school, it will be a part of the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 67 

church's regular work, under the supervision 
of the church, fostered and supported by the 
church, sharing in the life of the church, and 
laying its fruits in the lap of the church. Of 
course, rechristening an institution does not 
necessarily achieve all the results that may 
be implied in the new name. But it will help 
not a little if in our thinking we make the 
Sunday school the school of the church. It 
is the church's effort to supplement the home 
instruction and the pulpit ministrations by 
coming together for one hour each Lord's 
Day for a diligent, systematic, united study 
of the Bible. It is not to take the place of 
the home, or the class in the catechism, or 
the preaching service. It is to strengthen the 
hands of all agencies that were in use before 
the Sunday school came into being. When 
the announcement of the Sunday school 
service is made from the pulpit it has a 
strange and far-away sound and elicits little 
response; but if we designate it the church 
school, the church will begin to feel it is her 
own child and deserving of some parental 
interest. But whatever the name we employ, 
we must make it the church school, laying 
both the privileges it offers and the responsi- 
bility it involves upon the church. 

We must remember, too, that it is a school. 
The entire arrangement and method leave 



68 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

no doubt of the character of this organiza- 
tion. It is a school. The pupils are grouped 
according to age and ability into classes, each 
having a teacher. Sometimes these classes 
disperse to separate rooms; the Bible is the 
text-book; the lessons are adapted to the 
mental development of the child; home work 
is assigned, and the study is carried on by 
questions and answers. The first glimpse we 
get of such an organization tells us it is a 
school. Here the church is exercising her 
teaching function. Here instruction is pri- 
mary, and that instruction is religious. It 
is the one agency among us to-day which can 
properly be regarded as specifically the school 
of the religious life. It is the one method by 
which the Christian Church is seeking to 
carry out the latter half of the Saviour's 
final command, "Go, preach . . . teaching 
them." 

The school then, I take it, is an integral 
part of the church, set at the same task, 
burdened with the same commission, and 
functioning with all the other activities of the 
church. It is the child of the church, and 
their interests are one. When one suffers the 
other suffers also. When one succeeds the 
other rejoices and shares in the success. The 
church should not hesitate to assume the 
spiritual direction of its school, and the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 69 

school should just as willingly submit to such 
oversight. 

III. How Secure the Attendance of 
the Sunday School Scholars at 
the Church Services 

We have seen that the church and school 
are intimately related. We could not sepa- 
rate them without destroying the school and 
seriously retarding the growth of the 
church. The interests of each are wrapped 
up in the other. Each should, therefore, be 
expected to be most loyal to the other. 

This all looks very well in print. As a 
theory it is beautiful. It is what we would 
like to see. If the school were as zealous 
for the church as it is for itself, would it 
conduct itself any differently? Ask the same 
question of the church. Why is it that there 
are not more church members at the sessions 
of the school, and why are there so few of 
the members of the school at the church 
services ? Is there not evidence that the ideal 
relationship between the two organizations 
is far from being realized? Go where you 
will, and you will be asked how to bring the 
Sunday school into the church. 

Since we are discussing Sunday school mat- 
ters, we shall confine ourselves to the ques- 
tion of securing the presence of pupils at the 



70 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

church worship. This problem is distressing 
some pastors and disturbing all. They real- 
ize that such presence is not only desirable, 
but that it is also absolutely necessary for the 
highest welfare of both church and school. 
We are told that the average school loses 
approximately fifty per cent of its member- 
ship from one cause or another. It is not 
probable that a very large proportion of this 
fifty per cent is saved to the church. As a 
rule, pupils cannot be held in the school un- 
less they are gotten into the church ; but how 
can they be gotten into the church in any 
vital and saving sense unless they are culti- 
vating the habit of church-going? Hence 
it follows that the absence of scholars, both 
young and old, from divine worship is at- 
tracting wide attention and occasioning 
solicitude and unfavorable comment. 

That something will have to be done is 
universally felt. To stand by the door after 
the dismissal of the school and see the streets 
dark with people wending their way home 
instead of going to divine worship, makes 
the heart sad. I was in a Lutheran school 
on a recent September morning. The record 
showed three hundred present. Most of 
these were children and young people. I at 
once thought there would be a good audience 
at the service which was to follow. And so 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 71 

there was, for that down-town church; but 
it was a different audience. There were not 
two persons present under fourteen years of 
age. 

There is one thing sure, the habit of 
church attendance must be formed in youth. 
As pastors, we will testify that those who 
have been irregular church-goers before con- 
firmation are, as a rule, irregular afterward. 
They are the first to go into the column of 
"Other Losses." We cannot hope to save 
them from a life of sin and shame unless 
we save them to the church through regular 
habits of worship. 

In the first place it should be said that 
those persons who go to Sunday school and 
not to church are not sinners above all others. 
They have not done their whole duty, but 
they have done part of it. It is far better to 
attend Sunday school alone than not to at- 
tend a religious service of any kind. They 
have done something for which they deserve 
recognition. It is easier to lead individuals 
into the active life of the congregation from 
the Sunday school than it is from the world. 
The habits they are forming are good ones, 
so far as they go, and the message they re- 
ceive is not different from what is dispensed 
from the pulpit. These words are not set 
down with any thought of apologizing for 



72 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

the absence of the Sunday school hosts from 
the principal services of the church or to en- 
courage them in that direction. But it is well 
for us to appreciate what is already being 
done. 

And I am not so sure that the people who 
go to Sunday school and do not attend church 
are sinners above those who go to church 
and do not go to Sunday school — if they can. 
One point of failure upon which we must lay 
our finger is this: the vast majority of our 
church members do not seem to be aware 
of the fact that the Sunday school is, or 
ought to be, the church at work studying the 
Bible. Not more than about twenty-five per 
cent of the confirmed membership of our con- 
gregations attend Sunday school. Quickly 
do we concede that many of them cannot at- 
tend. But there ought to be at least fifty per 
cent of the church members in the school; 
and the others should be in the Home De- 
partment. When a column of older people 
can be drawn up about the school, the rising 
generation will be more easily saved to the 
church. 

There is a feeling in many of our homes 
that the Sunday school is for the children and 
young people, and the church service for the 
adults. The two groups meet, the one com- 
ing from school and the other going to 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 73 

church. The adult classes are remedying this 
condition, or, at least, are in a position to do 
so. But large numbers of them do not re- 
main for the preaching hour. There is a 
freedom and a cordiality in the school, the 
privilege of exchanging views about the Bible 
and its teachings, and of discussing questions 
relative to the religious life, and for these 
reasons the average man and woman are at- 
tracted to the school. 

How can pupils be led to attend the church 
service ? 

/. By the Combination Service 

In order to give the hour of divine wor- 
ship the place it deserves and to secure a 
better attendance at it, some pastors are try- 
ing the combination service. Instead of hav- 
ing two separate and distinct services, they 
are merging them into one, which lasts about 
two hours. This method, I see, has been in- 
troduced into more than one thousand 
churches. The sermon and lesson study each 
takes about thirty minutes. Time is saved 
in having but one opening and closing service 
instead of two, and in having the announce- 
ments made but once. So far as the writer 
knows this plan is in operation in but a few 
of our congregations. He questions whether 
it will soon become popular with Lutherans. 



74 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Rev. S. P. Long, D.D., Mansfield, Ohio, has 
given this method a thorough trial, and says 
he and his congregation would not think of 
giving it up, it has worked so well. I give 
his order of service : 

1. Teachers' prayer meeting, 9.25 A.M. to 
9.40 a.m. 

2. Organ prelude, 9.40 to 9.45 A.M. 

3. Anthem, 9.45, followed by common 
service through the Gloria Patri, then hymn. 

4. Ushers enter and sit in front pews. 

5. Scripture lesson, creed and prayer. 

6. Congregational offering. 

7. Children's choir. 

8. Announcements. 

9. Second hymn — "Break Thou the bread 
of life." 

10. Twenty-minute sermon — the best pos- 
sible. 

11. Short prayer. 

12. Superintendent takes charge and all 
go to classes — the visitors go to classes too 
— if men, they remain in front of pulpit, 
where pastor teaches. 

13. Buzzer in every room — first, to take 
offering; second, to return to auditorium 
while orchestra plays. 

14. Report of the secretary and golden 
truth sent home to all by superintendent. 

15. All who in the first service sing church 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 75 

hymns, now sing two Sunday school hymns 
and stand while singing. 

16. Lord's Prayer and benediction by the 
pastor. 

The two hours seem like a few minutes to 
all. 

2. By Making Plain the Divine Character 
of the Church. 
The Church is a divine institution. Her 
service is the principal one. To her have 
been entrusted the preaching of the gospel 
and the administration of the sacraments. 
She must stand and be supported though all 
else fall. The Sunday school is not a rival, 
or a substitute, or another church. Attend- 
ance upon it is not the whole of man's duty. 
Have we allowed the Church to slip from 
her divine level and to lose something of her 
glorious dignity in the eyes of our people? 
Has the solemn wonder gone from her courts 
arid her name and meaning brought to the 
level of those agencies through which she 
works ? 

5. By Bringing the Church Into the School 

Urge upon the members of the congrega- 
tion the privilege and importance of their 
uniting with the school of the church. The 
large end of the answer to the problem under 
discussion lies in their direction. There is 



76 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

not the least doubt that we will have more 
of the school in the church when more of 
the church is in the school. The adults must 
become the examples and lead the way in 
this matter. The young people reason after 
this manner: If our parents and other adults 
attend but one service, why shall we be ex- 
pected to attend two? And if they attend 
the church service and not the school, why 
may we not attend the school and not the 
church service? When a column of the 
older people can be lined up about the school, 
the young people of teen age and under will 
not slip away when the hour of church wor- 
ship strikes. The first step toward closer 
union of effort must be taken by the church. 
Her outspoken and evident interest in the 
school will react to her own good. 

4. By Choosing for Officers and Teachers 
Those Who Are Faithful to the Church 
They, above all others, are teaching by 
their example. We cannot expect pupils to 
go to church when their teachers go home. 
A word from the teachers, encouraging 
their classes to remain, will do good. It is a 
question whether a teacher ought to be re- 
tained if for any reason it is impossible for 
him to be present, at least with some degree 
of regularity, at the preaching service. His 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 77 

message before the class may be strong, 
but it will break down under an example 
that is not consistent. His pupils will do 
what he does, and not what he says. And, 
after all, how much of a message has he for 
them if by his conduct he discredits the 
church in their eyes? Loyalty to the church 
in word and deed is one of the first qualifi- 
cations of a teacher. A consecrated young 
woman who is a gifted singer and reader was 
invited to take part in a social of another 
church on a Wednesday evening. She de- 
clined the invitation, saying that it was the 
evening for prayer meeting at her church, 
and that some of the boys in her class would 
be present, and she did not want them to 
find her absent. They had been attending 
through her influence, and she knew they 
would stop going just as soon as there was 
seeming indifference on her part. Teachers 
as much as anyone else can help the church 
solve this problem. 

5. By Having Teachers Bring Their Classes 
to the Church Service 

This can be done. It has been tried with 
a considerable degree of success. Have 
teacher and class sit together just as they 
do in the school. Perhaps once a month 
would be frequent enough for this experi- 



78 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

ment. Local conditions and results would 
determine the policy in large measure. The 
criticism that the plan leaves the impression 
that the school is wanted at the church ser- 
vice periodically is not a good one. In the 
first place, it is better to have them once a 
month than not at all; and in the second 
place, those same pupils will be seen drop- 
ping in at other services, for they have 
learned that there is much there that they 
can understand and appreciate. 

6. By Keeping a Record of Attendance 

Appoint two persons who know the mem- 
bership of the school, and have them keep 
a record of the number of scholars present 
at church, and report it the next Sunday to 
the school. Or ask the scholars who of them 
remained for church service last Sunday, or 
who of them expect to do so to-day. A very 
successful pastor has the young people of 
his church furnish a selection of music at 
one of the preaching services each Sunday. 
He generally has from fifty to a hundred 
present. They occupy a reserved portion of 
the church near the front. If we approach 
the task of winning the young people with 
timidity and a fainting heart, we shall go 
on failing. 

An effective method is in successful opera- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 79 

tion in the Trinity Sunday School, Johns- 
town, Pa. A special record book has been 
provided for use by the teachers. This book 
is ruled so as to give three columns for 
each pupil each Sunday. At the head of the 
first column stands the letter E., which means 
early; at the head of the second column 
stands L., which means late; while at the 
head of the third column stands C, which 
means church attendance. The method of 
marking is a simple one, and it has produced 
results. In learning how to mark column C. 
it is necessary for the teacher to ask a ques- 
tion of each pupil personally. If a pupil 
should answer negatively an opportunity is 
afforded the teacher for a persuasive word. 
The system has likewise reacted on the teach- 
ers and shown them the necessity for their 
being faithful at church. A careful record 
of results has been kept in this school, and 
it is found that eighty-three per cent of the 
pupils present in the Intermediate and Adult 
departments remain for the preaching serv- 
ice. This is more than twice the attendance 
before the introduction of the improved 
method. Many in the elementary grades 
also remain for the church service. The 
report of the attendance each Sunday is read 
before the whole school on the following 
Sunday. We know of no other school in 



80 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

which such satisfactory results have been 
obtained. 

7. By Restoring the Family Pew 

In order to do this it is not needful to 
return to the rented pew system. The 
practice of parents and children sitting 
together is not as general as it should be. 
This is one form of family religion, and be- 
gets reverence and family solidarity. The 
separation of children from their parents 
tends to misbehavior, and misbehavior leads 
to the inference that they had better remain 
away. When you see half a dozen young- 
sters occupying the front pew, with no adult 
near, you may rest assured that someone is 
going to have a "good" time, but it will not 
be the minister. Those children should be 
scattered over the church with their parents, 
or older brothers and sisters. This plan 
would put an end to occasional disorder, 
which has led some people to frown. upon 
the idea of children attending the church 
service. 

8. By Giving Prominence to the Importance 

of Church Attendance 
Keep the subject to the front. We can 
do anything, if we work hard at it. Some 
seemingly impossible things have been ac- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 81 

complished in the religious world. But it 
has taken long years to do them. The rea- 
son our schools are growing so rapidly, and 
adult classes are springing up in a day, and 
Bibles are coming to be used in classes, is 
because they are so much talked about. Im- 
pressing the duty of church attendance, in 
season and out of season, will not bring all 
the scholars to church, but it will bring not 
a few of them. Improvement is possible 
with the use of the follow-up system. 

g. By Being Patient and Tactful 

Do not scold. Threats to close up the 
school or to do something else just as unrea- 
sonable get nowhere. Human nature is so 
constituted that it can rarely be driven, but 
it can generally be led. Patience, tact and 
love are our angels of hope in all this mat- 
ter. Time, too, is required to accomplish all 
we desire. 

io. By Holding the School in the Morning 
This is done at many places the year 
round. And one of the reasons is because 
it serves to swell the morning audience. 
Pupils, who would not come out for an ad- 
ditional service, will remain for it when the 
session of the school is held before the hour 
of preaching. Ministers immediately re- 



82 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

mark about the presence of young people at 
church when school changes from afternoon 
to morning. If the disadvantages are not 
too many or too great, it is worth a trial. 
The gain in increased attendance at the 
morning worship would compensate for any 
slight falling off in the roll of the school. 

The matter of church attendance is a seri- 
ous one. We must approach it with confi- 
dence, with reliance upon God's gracious aid, 
and with the determination to win. The 
school of to-day will hardly be the church 
of to-morrow unless that school is to-day be- 
ing trained in right feelings and habits to- 
ward the church. 



Ill 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUN- 
DAY SCHOOL 

When Robert Raikes interpreted the age 
in which he lived as needing moral and re- 
ligious education, he read with the vision of 
a seer the need of the days far ahead of 
him. A nation that is godless cannot long 
endure. Physical and intellectual achieve- 
ments are not the chief factors that make for 
the stability and perpetuity of a people. The 
Sunday schools, as soon as it was possible 
to do so, devoted almost the whole of their 
time to religious instruction, turning over 
to the public schools that part of their cur- 
riculum which dealt with secular branches. 
To-day this agency is purely religious in its 
method and material, and is a tremendous 
force in the development of the spiritual life 
of the nation. If it be granted that man 
is incurably religious, and that his education 
is not complete unless provision is made for 
the nurture of this side of his nature, then 
it follows that the Sunday school, under 
present conditions, is a necessary as it is a 

83 



84 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

national force. It has come to the kingdom 
for such a time as this, and whatever may be 
its imperfections, it is recognized as probably 
the greatest single educational agency in 
America to-day for the dissemination of re- 
ligious knowledge. 

1. Teaching the Bible 
To show the importance of the Sunday 
school it might be sufficient to say that the 
Bible is the book from which instruction is 
given. An English editor once wrote to "the 
hundred greatest men in Great Britain," ask- 
ing them what three books they would like 
to have with them if they were compelled 
to spend a year all alone, without friend or 
visitor. Out of the hundred, ninety-eight 
placed the Bible at the head of the list of 
the three books they would most desire. This 
is the book that is the text for study in the 
Sunday school. It contains exact history, 
thrilling biography, sublime poetry, un- 
equaled parables, exquisite love stories, un- 
matched deeds of heroism, and many of the 
masterpieces of the world's literature; but 
the chief excellence of the Bible is to be 
found in the fact that it reveals God to man 
and makes known the way of salvation 
through Jesus Christ. It is through and 
through a religious book. It meets and satis- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 85 

fies all the spiritual longings of man at each 
stage of his development. We may know all 
other books and be ignorant, but if we know 
the Bible we are wise with a wisdom that 
cannot be put to shame. As long as the 
Sunday school stands upon the Bible and 
makes it its text-book, its place and import- 
ance in the sphere of religious education are 
assured. Its business is not so much to 
hold fast the word of God as it is to let it 
loose, and any institution that has that for 
its object is the Bible's strongest defender. 

2. The Church Teaching 
The importance of the Sunday school is 
further seen when we recall that it is of the 
Church and by the Church, and partakes of 
her nature, origin and glory. The Christian 
Church is the salt of the earth, the light of 
the world. She is the Lord's little flock, 
the vineyard of His own planting, the as- 
sembly of the saints, the pillar and ground of 
the truth, the body of Christ, the Lamb's 
bride, the one institution on the earth through 
which the kingdom of God is coming. Now 
it is to this Church that the Sunday school 
is vitally related, and we are to think of it 
as sharing in the dignity, the world-wide 
mission and spiritual character of the Church. 
It is not the offspring of a secular organiza- 



86 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

tion, dependent upon the tide in the affairs 
of men. It is well-born. 

u Is the Sunday school a divine institu- 
tion?" is frequently asked. But two answers 
can be given, and both of them have their 
advocates. There is no definite command 
or authoritative word in the Scriptures for 
the origin of the Sunday school, as there is 
for the Church. Therefore, it is scarcely 
exact to declare the Sunday school is of di- 
vine origin. Yet it is safe to say that an in- 
stitution that has God for its Father and the 
Church for its mother is not far from, being 
divine. That its rise was providential none 
will dispute. Its history is sufficient evidence 
that it is not of man alone. In organization 
and outward form it is not divine, but in 
principle and purpose it is. It gathers its 
meaning, its authority and its place in the 
kingdom-building from the Church of which 
it is a part. 

The practice obtains among us of making 
the Sunday school room a general meeting 
place. We try to preserve the sanctity of the 
church itself by using it only for the principal 
services. When there are sociables, or 
games, or hand-clapping, or loud talking, or 
meetings of a promiscuous and semi-religious 
character, they are confined as much as pos- 
sible to the room in which the school holds 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 87 

its sessions. And this is as it should be, un- 
less there is a social hall for all such func- 
tions. We know how these things militate 
against that quiet, reverent and attentive 
mind with which we should come into the 
house of God. But do they not act precisely 
the same way with respect to the Sunday 
school room? Why is it that order and 
an attitude of worship are so difficult to 
secure? There are other contributing 
causes, to be sure. But do we not come to 
think of the school and the work it is do- 
ing just about as we think of the room in 
which the school meets? This is no lament. 
It is a plain, stubborn fact with which every 
pastor and superintendent is sorrowfully 
familiar. 

There is nothing more difficult than to 
have the school realize the bigness, the 
sacred character and authority of its work. 
It will be helped to this if we can get it to 
feel that it is a part of the Church, back of 
which and in which is the Christ, that some- 
thing of the same solemnity must be carried 
over into its work, and that the Bible from 
which the minister reads and which he ex- 
pounds is the book which the school is 
to study. Let us put the Church first, but 
we are in no immediate danger of thinking 
of the school more highly than we ought to 



88 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

think. It is important because it came from 
the Church, and belongs to the Church, 
whose work as well as whose reward it 
shares. 

3. Training the Spiritual Life 
The work of the Sunday school grows 
in importance as we contemplate the material 
upon which we work. It is nothing less than 
immortal souls. To mold clay is one thing, 
to mix colors and paint a picture is another, 
but to touch a human life, and, by the help 
of God, to deposit some seed there is quite 
another. When we build a house we know 
it will some day fall down ; when we rear a 
monument we know it will crumble to dust; 
but when we teach and influence the child, or 
youth, or adult, we are just as certain that 
the material we are working upon is inde- 
structible. The task of the school is no less 
than this. Look at it any way we will it is 
serious business. A soul is worth more than 
all the world. And to see hundreds of them 
bending forward drinking in the word ought 
to inspire even those who live on the low- 
lands. It is so natural for petty cares and 
small problems to shut our eyes to the magni- 
tude of the work we are doing, that we 
go about it without heart. While those 
whose destiny is in the making — and whose 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 89 

is not? — present themselves at the school 
for guidance and instruction, we have an op- 
portunity which, for challenge and appeal, 
cannot be exceeded. It is by no means easy 
to see the spiritual possibilities that lie dor- 
mant in the trying boy or mischievous girl. 
But did not Jesus come in the flesh to give 
us eyes to see that very thing? It is not prob- 
able that any other view of the work of the 
school will long keep us faithful. While we 
are dealing with life, with human life, and 
with human life on its spiritual side, we must 
endeavor to preserve an adequate concep- 
tion of the greatness of the work in which we 
are engaged. 

We might rest the case here. No further 
statement is needful to indicate to any 
thoughtful person how important, how far- 
reaching the task of the Sunday school. An 
institution that has the Bible for its text- 
book, that is an agency of the Christian 
Church, and that has to deal with the souls 
of men, dare not be lightly esteemed. No 
individual, however great may be his talents 
or commanding his influence, ever steps down 
when he goes into the school of the church. 
He always steps up. The day is at hand 
when we are seeing that we never become 
too old or too wise to be found in the service 
of the Sunday school. 



90 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

But there are other reasons why the re- 
ligious training given in the Bible school is 
important. We desire to speak of these 
also. Most of them are to be found grow- 
ing out of modern developments and condi- 
tions, and show the timeliness of the school 
and the increasing responsibilities which are 
being put upon it. There never was a time 
when the call from the school for large 
service was so loud and imperative as to- 
day; and never a time when faithful, conse- 
crated workers were so much needed in it 
as now. 

4. The Elimination of the Bible from 
the Public Schools 

From the fourth century until compara- 
tively recent times all education, secular as 
well as religious, was under the control of 
the Christian Church. That day is now past, 
at least so far as our country is concerned. 
But it was not so at the beginning. Religion 
had its place in our public school system. It 
was definitely provided for and stressed 
above all other studies. The founders of 
this republic had no thought of an educa- 
tional system without religion. We know 
that the principal text-books in the common 
schools of New England in the eighteenth 
century were the New England primer, the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 91 

spelling book, the Psalter, the New Testa- 
ment and the Bible. And so thorough was 
the instruction in religious subjects that Sun- 
day schools did not spring up so early there 
as in the Middle and Southern States. The 
Bible had its place in the day schools of all 
the states. It was read and explained, and 
moral and religious lessons drawn from it. 
Prayer was also offered. It was no uncom- 
mon thing for public school buildings to be 
dedicated something after the manner of the 
dedication of churches, and to be used freely 
for religious purposes. 

The Protestant Church is the mother of 
the public school system, but now she is al- 
lowed little or no place in determining its 
curriculum. The Protestant Church uncov- 
ered and unchained the Bible, and the pop- 
ular knowledge of this book gained for us 
all our liberty; and yet the Bible holds a very 
limited place in our public schools at the 
present time. In the earlier days, when 
Protestantism predominated, both in num- 
bers and influence, the public schools gave 
religious instruction. But now Catholics, 
Jews and agnostics have gained in strength. 
They, too, are American citizens, and have 
their rights. They demand that the Protest- 
ant Bible shall not be read in schools sup- 
ported by the state, and comments thereon 



92 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

made which are at variance with the tradi- 
tions and convictions of those of other faiths. 

As a result we see a gradual elimination of 
religious instruction from public education. 
For about one hundred and fifty years the 
religious element in general education has 
been growing less and less. It is a matter of 
common knowledge that religious instruction 
in the public schools has practically ceased. 
The Bible has been going out of these schools 
with an alarming rapidity. In some states 
there has been a complete overturning of the 
old order. "The United States, ever since 
the final ruling of the Wisconsin Court, has 
excluded definite religious teaching from the 
common schools; in some states, however, 
permitting the reading of the Bible without 
comment." In some states the law requires 
the Bible to be read. But it dare not be read 
in the public schools of California, Washing- 
ton, Montana, Minnesota, Nevada, Idaho, 
Arizona, Wisconsin and Illinois. Say about 
the educational system of the past what we 
will, it at least had the religious element 
injected into it. One cannot go through the 
curriculum of the average public school now 
without being made conscious of the absence 
of all provision for religious instruction. 

There are several aspects of this situa- 
tion which are nothing short of alarming. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 93 

First. It is a universally recognized fact 
that no education is complete that lacks re- 
ligious instruction. Man is a religious being, 
and so soundly and essentially religious that 
this part of his nature cannot be thought of 
as being fostered and developed independ- 
ently of intellectual processes. The normal 
way is for the physical, intellectual and re- 
ligious to grow together. 

Second. The public schools exercise their 
influence upon the pupils at the critical period 
of life. Impressions made upon the child 
last. Ethical teachings then given would 
serve to curb the acts of disobedience and 
immorality in later life. Ample mental 
furnishing does not insure against vice. 

Third. If many of the growing boys and 
girls do not receive religious instruction in 
the public schools, they will receive it no- 
where. In "Creed and Curriculum," by 
William Charles O'Donnell, Jr., page 3, we 
read: "There are 19,000,000 children in the 
public schools of this country receiving no 
direct religious education. For five hours a 
day they are in touch with their teachers 
and under the teacher's influence. Once a 
week less than one per cent of these children 
go to Sunday schools, which attempt to make 
up for the lack of moral education in the 
public schools." The statement about the 



94 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

one per cent will surprise us all, and it con- 
firms what I want to say, namely, that mill- 
ions of our young people belong to no church, 
to no Sunday school, to no religious or- 
ganization, and, what is still worse, they re- 
ceive no religious instruction in their homes. 
These non-religious millions are going to 
have no small part in the control of our 
country and in the shaping of its ideals. No 
religion in the public schools means no re- 
ligion anywhere for a considerable percent- 
age of our future citizens. 

But the situation, as we find it, is not with- 
out its bright spots too. 

First. There is a feeling of concern abroad 
in the land. Something more must be done 
for the religious training of the youth than 
is being done. The casting about for im- 
proved methods is prophetical of better re- 
sults. There is a degree of godlessness 
prevalent to-day that is causing persons of 
all stations to think. 

Second. Leading educators are devising 
ways by which religious instruction may be 
given. Already provision has been made 
in some twenty states and provinces so that 
credit is given in public schools for Bible 
study. The Colorado and the North Dakota 
plans have been pioneers in this direction. 
According to the Gary plan the pupils are 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 95 

excused certain hours during the week, at 
which time they repair to their respective 
churches for instruction in religion. Dr. 
G. U. Wenner proposes that all pupils be 
excused from the public schools one-half day 
each week, say Wednesday afternoon, for 
religious training by the churches. 

Third. The vast majority of our public 
school teachers are members of some Chris- 
tian church. A superintendent of the schools 
of one of our largest cities said recently that 
ninety per cent of the teachers of the state 
with which he is best acquainted are Chris- 
tians. We dare not lose sight of the per- 
sonal influence of our splendid army of teach- 
ers. 

Fourth. Efforts are being made to get the 
Jews, Catholics and Protestants to agree on 
a series of Bible readings for use in the 
public schools. Of course, those readings 
must be confined to the existence, attributes 
and providence of God, and the moral and 
ethical portions of the Scriptures. Nothing 
of a denominational character, or even dis- 
tinctively Christian, would be permitted. 

But even after taking into account every 
hopeful indication, this naked fact remains : 
religious education is a constantly diminish- 
ing factor in the public schools of the United 
States. 



96 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Personally, I do not see how religion, ex- 
cept in a very rudimentary way, can have a 
place in our public schools. Our national 
constitution forbids it. They are free and 
open to all children regardless of creed. We 
believe in the separation of Church and State. 
We have no possession dearer than freedom 
of conscience. No group among us has a 
right to force its belief on another group. 
There are some two hundred denominations 
or shades of belief in our country. It is- 
difficult for a person to be sectarian without 
teaching sectarianism. 

The weakness of the Protestant denomi- 
nations in America has been their failure to 
make adequate provision for the religious 
training of all their children. They have 
depended too much upon the public school, 
a non-religious institution. And now that its 
doors are slowly closing against the Bible, 
the churches find that they are not in a posi- 
tion to give a systematic and comprehensive 
course in religious instruction to their young 
people. 

What is the result? The burden of en- 
larged responsibility falls upon the Sunday 
school. It is the one institution in America 
that seeks to do for the religious nature of 
the child what the public school does for his 
intellectual nature. The catechetical class 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 97 

is a large factor in religious nurture, but the 
Sunday school more so, because it touches 
so many more persons and has them for a 
much longer period of years. Where shall 
our youth be trained in religion? We an- 
swer, In the Sunday school. The Church 
has no other answer, for it is the only school 
of the soul-life the Church has. She will be 
in a position to answer differently when she 
inaugurates a program of week-day religious 
instruction, or when one of the preaching 
services shall be turned into a teaching 
service, neither of which would be totally 
new. But up to the present time the Sunday 
school is the educational department of the 
Church, and must build its program, instruct 
its teachers, and arrange its curriculum, so 
that it may take over part of the responsi- 
bility that was formerly assumed by the 
public schools in the way of religious instruc- 
tion. It is an imperative necessity that the 
Christian Church shall enlarge her educa- 
tional activities. 

5. The Neglect of Family Religion 
It does not seem probable that the Sunday 
school would have come into existence had 
the family, which was the first and largest 
provision for religious nurture, done its 
duty. One cannot help referring to the well- 



98 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

known fact that nearly all of the great lead- 
ers in the early Christian Church had devout 
and godly parents. The youths whom 
Raikes met on the streets of Gloucester were 
without home training. It would be proper 
to say that the immediate occasion for the 
organization of a Sunday school was the de- 
cay and neglect of family religion. 

What are the conditions to-day? Family 
religion is not a dead thing, and surely it is 
not as much alive as it ought to be. The 
unanimous belief is that it is not as prevalent 
as it once was. This is in part due to a 
breaking up of family unity through the re- 
adjustment of our industrial life, and to the 
creation of an endless number of outside 
organizations. But pass by causes and grasp 
the fact. It would be spiritually exhilarating 
to feel that parents were doing their utmost 
to send their children out in the world 
equipped as well religiously as they are in- 
tellectually and physically. 

Provost Smith, of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, said awhile ago, in speaking of 
family religion : "Whose fault is it if a fresh- 
man of eighteen enters my private office with 
his hat on the back of his head, and asks 
for 'Smith,' so that he may tell this man 
'Smith' that he wants to 'cut this chapel 
business/ because he does not believe in re- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 99 

ligion? Will a chair of moral philosophy 
in any university help this condition?" 

It is the fashion now-a-days to indulge in 
wholesale criticism of our colleges and uni- 
versities. The charge is that they discredit 
the Bible, and tear to shreds our Christian 
faith, sending their graduates out into the 
world unbelievers, or at least indifferent to 
the Church. Part of this criticism is de- 
served, and the time is not far distant, we 
believe, when more of the higher institutions 
of learning will employ no professor who is 
not a Christian. But there is another side 
to this matter. When the training in our 
homes and Sunday schools is more positively 
religious and thorough, we may rest assured 
that more of the young men and women who 
pass through our higher institutions will be 
rooted and grounded in the truth when they 
have completed their course. The founda- 
tions of religious belief, as well as of secular 
education, should be firmly laid before a 
youth leaves home. Colleges have entrance 
requirements. What if they had religious 
requirements; how many of those who de- 
sire to matriculate would be received? 

Theodore Cuyler, a giant among preach- 
ers and practical Christian men, said, a few 
years before his death: "When I was young 
parents used to tell their children Bible 



100 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

stories and then send them off to Sunday 
school; now children learn the Bible stories 
at Sunday school and come home and tell 
them to their parents." There is more 
family religion to-day than yesterday. Better 
conditions are beginning to prevail. Chris- 
tian parents are being aroused to a sense 
of their responsibility. Like Elijah of old 
on Mt. Carmel, they are gathering together 
the scattered stones of the tumbled down 
altar and are rebuilding it, and with deep 
concern are beseeching God to kindle fire 
thereon. 

But even so, it is only a small percentage 
of families of which this can be said. God 
intended every father to be a priest in his 
family; but, alas! many of them have sur- 
rendered the office. Some superficial persons 
have blamed the Sunday school for this condi- 
tion. If such has been the case in any instance, 
it was where family religion was already at 
the breaking point, and where parents stood 
at the door waiting for an excuse to escape 
their personal responsibility. 

In any event, home training is woefully 
deficient. Such indoctrination of the chil- 
dren by the parents as Luther urged upon 
his generation is the exception and not the 
rule. I am no alarmist. I do not say the 
home has failed. But I do say it is only 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 101 

a fraction of what God in His goodness in- 
tended it should be ; and that because of this, 
there are thousands of children who receive 
absolutely no religious instruction except 
what they get in the Sunday school. To these 
immortals, as needy as any upon whom the 
love of Raikes ever fastened itself, the Sun- 
day school is an important institution. 

It makes no difference what plans may be 
devised, or what organizations may be ef- 
fected, not any or all of them can take the 
place of family training and example. An 
agency like the Sunday school, that meets 
but once a week, and then for only one hour, 
and a voluntary association of individuals at 
that, cannot hope to make a permanent re- 
ligious impression upon many pupils unless it 
has the support and co-operation of the home. 
In religious training the home is the prin- 
cipal, the Sunday school is the assistant. 
Where the two work heart to heart large re- 
sults will be obtained. 

While the school cannot do the work God 
has laid on the parents, yet in the event 
that family religion collapses, the school, by 
conscientious and faithful shepherding, is to 
try to care for the religious nurture of the 
little ones whose lives are thereby imperiled. 
When all influences are gathered up and 
weighed, it is probable the home will be more 



102 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

largely indebted to the Sunday school than 
it is now willing to acknowledge. The wide- 
spread neglect of religion in the home makes 
the school a necessity and imposes upon it 
a serious responsibility. 

6. The Non-Attendance of Children 
at Public Worship 

We have seen that the Sunday school is 
the educational department of the Church. 
We are not, therefore, to think of those 
who attend the school, but are not present 
at the services of worship, as lost to the 
Church, or out of contact and union with 
it. If that were the case the situation would 
be appalling. We are not satisfied that they 
are identified with the Sunday school, but 
we are glad that they are. It might be far 
worse than it is. The hold the school has 
on its pupils is generally a strong one. How- 
ever, the disquieting fact remains that they 
should attend church, but do not. 

"We too slightly estimate the value of 
the public church service to the little child. 
The great building, the solemn silence, the 
music, the whole family in the pew, the 
pastor — 'our pastor' — in the pulpit, the voice 
of sacred song, our pastor's prayer, the 
Scripture lesson read by the pastor from that 
great book on the pulpit — God's own word 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 103 

— and then 'our pastor's sermon.' It is our 
pastor, whose hand is often in touch with the 
hands of the children who now listen to him 
and whom they reverence, and, it is to be 
hoped, love." — Rev. John H. Vincent, D.D. 

The services of the church and school are, 
in a measure, the complements of each other. 
The order of the church service is ( 1 ) wor- 
ship, (2) education; while that of the school 
is (1) education, (2) w r orship. From this 
it will be seen that attendance upon either for 
the average person is not all that is to be 
desired. The move to introduce a larger 
element of worship into the school has been 
discouraged by some. They say that if the 
school service is a duplicate of the church 
service there will be even less desire on the 
part of the pupils to attend public worship. 
One writer and authority says, "The element 
of worship should be reduced to the lowest 
consistent place." 

We question, however, whether a little 
more or less worship in the school will make 
any appreciable difference in the number of 
those who frequent the preaching service. 
On the contrary, since the majority of the 
younger people attend only the school, would 
not the introduction of a larger element of 
worship supply in part what they miss 
through absence from the church, and serve 



104 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

to cultivate those feelings under whose im- 
pulse they would be the more quickly led to 
attend divine worship? 

If the rank and file of our pastors were 
asked if they are greatly encouraged by the 
number of pupils who are regular worshipers 
at the morning or evening preaching service, 
the vast majority of them would answer in 
the negative. There is another question that 
should be asked. It is this, "Would the 
audience at church be larger if there were 
no Sunday school?" The answer to this is 
problematical, but several reflections may be 
made. First, it was not larger, if as large, 
before the Sunday school movement began. 
Second, the congregations that have no school 
are not any better attended. Third, no pas- 
tor seems to have the courage to dispense 
with his school in the hope of increasing his 
audiences. 

Can we not say, without a moment's hesi- 
tation, that the school is a feeder of the 
church? that the audiences, interest, intel- 
ligence, loyalty and offerings are much better 
than what they would be without the school? 
I believe in the divine origin and mission of 
the Christian Church, and, therefore, in her 
impregnability; but I am sure of one thing, 
that many congregations would close their 
doors and the whole Church sustain an ir- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 105 

reparable loss were it not for the splendid 
work our schools are doing. 

If these contentions are correct, it is the 
duty of the local congregation to throw itself 
into the work of its Sunday school. Since the 
young people do not attend the preaching 
of the gospel, save in limited numbers, the 
scope of the school's ministry is a large one. 
We must reach its members where they can 
be found. Many of them get no Christian 
nurture save in the school, and if they are 
won and held for Christ and His Church 
it must be there. The very thought of it 
challenges our interest and demands our 
best efforts. The Sunday school grows in 
importance when we see that only through 
it does the church have any vital hold upon 
many of the children, and that in many cases 
for years it is the only church they know. 

7. The Wide Influence of the Sunday 

School 
Every institution that has come to amount 
to anything in the world has found that 
there are three steps in the evolutionary pro- 
cess. The first one is opposition, the second 
is indifference, and the third is popular favor. 
The Sunday school has been no exception. 
It was bitterly opposed in England and in 
our own country. But it deserved to live, 



106 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

and it survived the opposition. Then it suf- 
fered almost as much through a long period 
of indifference. It was not openly opposed, 
neither was it accorded support by many 
good people. And when one pauses to think, 
indifference is a blight almost as deadly as 
antagonism. But the Sunday school has 
largely outlived it too. Truly this institu- 
tion has come into the period of popular 
favor. The forward strides it has taken dur- 
ing the past few years in the enlistment of 
thousands of adults, in the training of its 
teachers, and in the adoption of more mod- 
ern methods, give it a new lease of life, and 
predict the approach of an era of larger 
service for the kingdom. 

That the Sunday school has an enrollment in 
the United States alone of about 18,000,000 
immediately arrests attention and conveys 
some impression of its influence. The state- 
ment has been made that there are almost 
as many pupils to be found in the Protestant 
Sunday schools of North America on a Sun- 
day as there are individuals present at the 
morning and evening preaching services in 
the same churches on the same day; and 
that the Sunday school enrollment is larger 
than the confirmed membership of these 
churches. Make allowance for bad manage- 
ment, inferior teaching, obsolete methods 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 107 

and inadequate equipment, yet the sum total 
of the influence for good is incalculable. 

If the above figures be true, or approx- 
imately so, we cannot be blind to our respon- 
sibility. The thought of looking into the 
faces of from twelve to fifteen millions of 
boys and girls and men and women every 
Lord's Day, and of explaining unto them the 
way of life, makes us take hold of the reins 
of duty with cleansed purposes and height- 
ened ambitions. Our task is a tremendous 
one, far beyond our dreams, and none but 
the Holy Spirit can make us equal to it. The 
country spends millions on millions of dollars 
in educating the hand and the brain of the 
youth for the life that now is, and not a 
cent of it do we begrudge. The Church has 
the same work to do on the religious side, 
but the department of the Church in which 
this must be accomplished is the Sunday 
school. In our methods and expenditure of 
money we cannot rival the state, but in our 
aims and devotion to high ideals and sense 
of personal responsibility we must take no 
second place. 

8. The Child at the Formative Period 
Add to all that has been said on the im- 
portance of the Sunday school this last 
thought, that we have the majority of the 



108 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

pupils at the formative, plastic period of life, 
and our impression is perceptibly deepened. 
As a rule, children come to us when they 
are four or five years old, and remain with 
us at least until they are fifteen or sixteen. 
Certainly a dozen years is long enough, even 
with only an hour per week for instruction, 
to implant some religious truths very deeply. 
No years following this period are so golden 
with promise. 

When Jesus gave the children the fore- 
most place and made them examples, it was 
partly because they are eager recipients of 
the gospel story. "If the world is to be 
saved, the children must be saved." The 
religious nurture of the child is the first duty 
of the Church, and it is the most comprehen- 
sive one. 

It is a fundamental law of instruction 
that the best time to teach a person any given 
subject effectively is when the person is hun- 
gry for that subject. Sound instruction im- 
parted at the wrong time makes no impres- 
sion. Childhood is the period of spiritual 
hunger, and pre-eminently the season for 
an intelligent choice that may cover a life- 
time. Then the heart is open to impressions 
and influences of an abiding nature. Then 
the life is bent toward good or evil. And it 
is just at that period that the Sunday school 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 109 



is asked to contribute something toward 
bringing these children into conscious rela- 
tionship with Jesus Christ. Before us every 
Sunday is a sea of fresh life waiting to be 
taken and shaped by the truth into that which 
pleases Him who said, "Except ye become as 
little children." 

I do not propose the Sunday school as a 
cure-all. It has its limitations and unseemly 
weaknesses; it cannot be spoken of in the 
same breath with the public school as to 
efficiency; nevertheless if a stranger to the in- 
fluence of this agency were to ask me what I 
consider the greatest educational force on 
the subject of religion in Protestant North 
America to-day, I would be compelled to say, 
the Sunday school. 






IV 
THE AIM OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

1. The Value of Aims 

The aim in any pursuit does not belong 
to the adiaphora. It ranks high among the 
essentials. Without it all our work collapses 
and goes for naught. It gives direction and 
effectiveness to what we are doing. The 
goal of every endeavor is the one thing 
that pins us to our task and keeps the his- 
torian from writing failure over what we 
have undertaken. 

Did we see a young man bending over his 
books, as eager to get hold of the truth 
therein contained as the hungry child is to 
get hold of the food on the table, we would 
feel like asking him what he was studying, 
what use he expected to make of it, what 
good he thought it would serve, and how it 
related itself to his life work. And he would 
not be slow in telling us. He knows why he 
is doing what he is and what he expects to 
get from it. The goal of his labors may be 
twenty-five, yea, fifty years off, but his eye has 
caught a glimpse of it, and that glimpse con- 
stitutes the lure, the pull of his life. 

110 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 111 

Were you and I to visit, on any Lord's 
Day, a Sunday school, we would know in- 
stantly upon stepping inside the door that 
there was purpose, design, objective there. 
It may not be as clearly defined in the minds 
of some as we would expect, but it is incon- 
ceivable that there should be from one hun- 
dred to five hundred persons assembled in 
one place, grouped according to age and abil- 
ity, studying one book, joining in song, rever- 
ent in prayer, listening to a dozen or more 
teachers imparting the same message; I say 
it is inconceivable that an organization of 
this character should have no aim before it. 
We take it for granted an aim, a conscious 
aim, does exist, and that our schools, like our 
trains, know their direction, their schedule, 
and their destination. 

2. The Growth of Aims 

Aims grow up within us just as truth itself 
does. They do not remain fixed and perma- 
nent. It is perfectly permissible, yea, even 
desirable that there be a change of emphasis 
in the work of our schools. Sometimes it 
should be placed on the individual pupil, then 
on the school as a whole, then on the local 
church, or the community, or a particular 
movement, or one's denomination, or the 
world-wide need. Emphasis at different 



112 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

times may be placed on the use of Bibles, or 
a larger enrollment, or more pupils at church 
service, or promptness, or better order, or 
increased offerings. The aim of the teacher 
may be very personal in many cases. He 
may seek to win the confidence of his pupils, 
hold their attention, have them participate, 
or master the lesson himself and be more 
thoroughly furnished for the work to which 
he has been assigned. But it will be seen that 
these are the immediate and proximate aims 
and not the ultimate goal of our labors. 
Were we to stop at any of these we would 
fail. They but contribute to the compre- 
hensive and all-embracing aim which will be 
considered later. 

Neither should we expect all the pupils 
present to be actuated by the same motives. 
Age must be taken into account. Children 
are, perhaps, present because their parents 
tell them to go, or because the neighbors' 
children attend the same school, or because 
they like their teacher, or because they look 
for some small reward. Young people may 
attend partly because they know they will 
find their "group" or "gang" there, or be- 
cause of the social features, or because of 
the existence of clubs or athletic features en- 
couraged and promoted by that particular 
school. If you were to quiz the members of 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 113 

an adult class as to why they are there, you 
might find almost as many reasons as there 
are individuals. With some it is a habit and 
nothing more. 

Now, many of these motives are second, 
third and fourth rate, but they are not to 
be laughed at or ridiculed. The inferior 
will be dislodged by implanting the superior. 
These are steps from the lower to the higher 
in the order of growth. We doubtless all 
came through those same stages, and if 
we hadn't we would be infants still. It is 
our business to meet the scholars on their 
level and at their own stage of development 
and lead them to higher ambitions and 
worthier aims. Their motives, without 
question, are part of those childish things 
which they will, in due course of time, under 
faithful leadership, put aside in exchange 
for those that belong to persons of maturer 
growth. 

But rising above all these mixed and varied 
motives and aims should be found a few that 
give substantial character to the work of the 
school and save it from being labeled simply 
"another institution." As a general thing, a 
few persons do the thinking for the whole 
school. If it is to be kept from turning to 
the right hand or the left, or from fritter- 
ing away its time, they must see to it. 



114 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

They must guide its affairs, give shape 
to its ideals, and lead it out into the 
larger places of knowledge and service. Any- 
one can see how important it is that they 
think clearly, pray much, keep abreast of the 
times, and be able to give a good reason for 
the school being what it is. Happy is that 
school that has among its leaders men and 
women who are purposeful, clear-visioned, 
aggressive and consecrated, for they must 
save it from going to pieces on the rocks. 

3. What the Sunday School Is Not to 

Do 
/. // Is Not to Do What Is Already Being 
Done 

Certainly the aim of the school is not to do 
what some other organization is doing. If 
a service of any character is being looked 
after through one agency of the church, it 
is a waste of time and energy to put another 
at the same task. A deserved criticism of 
our church organizations to-day is the serious 
loss of power resulting from a duplication 
of effort. It is needful that the work of the 
various societies be so systematized and co- 
ordinated that we shall have the maximum 
amount of efficiency with the minimum 
amount of machinery. 

The case of a destitute family was re- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 115 

ported to a church. Two societies undertook 
to furnish relief, each ignorant of what the 
other was going to do. On a certain even- 
ing, soon after, two committees met before 
the door of the poor family. Each was car- 
rying a bundle of clothing and a basket of 
food. Both were from the same church, but 
from different organizations, and each was 
surprised at meeting the other there. 

A good way to prevent overlapping of 
work in some directions and a neglect of it 
in others is to create a cabinet, to be com- 
posed of the pastor and a representative 
from each organization within the church. 
The province of this cabinet would be to find 
out what the congregation is doing through 
its various agencies, to learn of new work 
to be undertaken, and to distribute it among 
the different societies. 

It stands to reason that an organization as 
large, as representative and as energetic as 
the average Sunday school, could do many 
things; but it is not to usurp the function of 
other church agencies or duplicate their 
effort. Whatever other lines of work it may 
assume, it is not to forget that it is first 
and always the teaching service of the con- 
gregation. 

That some churches are suffering from 
over-organization is apparent to careful ob- 



116 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

servers. A new society may be a sign of 
death as well as of life. There is likely to 
be retrenchment in the years just ahead of 
us. The Sunday school will be one of the 
organizations retained. It may undertake, 
at that time, a larger service; but for the 
present it had better confine itself chiefly 
to the limits within which it has been op- 
erating. 

2. It Is Not to Become a Social Center 

Certainly the aim of the Sunday school is 
not to provide social enjoyment for its mem- 
bers. How easy it is for the school to be 
transformed into a social circle, or a num- 
ber of social circles, corresponding to the 
classes, is evident to everyone who has had 
even a limited experience. With what ease 
this is done may be seen in the custom so 
widely prevalent of calling anything special 
an entertainment, as Christmas entertain- 
ment or Easter entertainment, rather than a 
service or celebration. The desire for pleas- 
ure is universal in normal youth. That de- 
sire God has implanted deep in the breast. 
It is a thing to be directed and not destroyed. 
It has its place, but is like uncontrolled fire 
when out of its place. It is secondary and 
must be kept under, lest the school lose its 
chief characteristic and come to be known 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 117 

as a play-house rather than a school. Social 
enjoyment cannot stand among the worth- 
while aims of the Sunday school. This is 
not the work of a class in religious education. 
It may be utilized as a means toward the at- 
tainment of these aims, and there find a 
legitimate place, but it is wholly secondary. 

3. It Is Not to Outnumber Some Other 
School 
The aim of the school is not to enroll 
more pupils than are enrolled in a near-by 
school. The desire to add new members to 
our roll is highly praiseworthy, but I want 
to take this opportunity of sounding a note 
of warning against overdoing it. I attend a 
great many rally-day services, and almost 
everywhere the test of success is, Do we have 
more present than a year ago ? This is one 
way of judging, but not the only one, and not 
the chief one. The good result of rivalry 
looks larger than it really is. The success 
of our public schools is not determined by the 
number of pupils attending them. Efficiency 
there is the principal criterion; work that will 
turn out for public life intelligent, upright 
and useful citizens. It will be a great gain 
for us when we pay more attention to the 
character of work done in our Bible schools. 
A policy of well-balanced effort is much 



118 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

needed. Where increased enrollment is ob- 
tained through membership contests, the ut- 
most care should be exercised lest the real 
purpose of the school be obscured and the 
last state of that school be worse than the 
first. It needs to be burned into the hearts 
of our officers and teachers that the regular 
Sunday-by-Sunday work of the school counts 
for infinitely more in the long run than any 
number of spurts. It remains to be proved 
that the largest schools are doing the most 
effective work. He isn't the richest farmer 
who owns the most land; he may have so 
much as to be land-poor. 

4. It Is Not to Relieve Parents 

And certainly the aim of the Sunday school 
is not to relieve parents of responsibility to- 
ward their children. It cannot do their work 
if it would. The family is a divine institu- 
tion, and it may be said that no other insti- 
tution mentioned between the covers of the 
Bible has its duties so clearly defined. The 
family is the foundation stone of every form 
of society, and whatever interferes with its 
fulfilling its function in the world is a menace. 
It is a question whether we are not asking 
fathers and mothers to give too much of 
their time to the church and her agencies. 
It is not an unusual thing for many of them 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 119 

to spend six, eight and even ten hours a 
week in the church. Especially is this true 
in the smaller congregations. The Sunday- 
school is not to blame for this condition any- 
more than any of our other societies. But 
it is a matter that will have to be reckoned 
with in the near future. In the meanwhile, 
home-builders need to be told that they can- 
not shift their responsibility. The sending 
of their children to Sunday school is not the 
equivalent of or the substitute for conscien- 
tious home training and example. God, with 
a wisdom that is not wholly concealed from 
our eyes, has vested with the parents of this 
and every other nation the rise and fall of 
the coming generations. It isn't enough that 
they be busy, but that they busy themselves 
when and where and in the manner the Lord 
has ordained. The disintegration of the 
home life and the disposition of parents, 
even of so-called Christian parents, to lift 
the yoke of responsibility from their necks 
and thrust it from them is the most serious 
peril our country faces at this time. The 
liquor traffic, the gambling evil, and war 
itself are as nothing compared with it. The 
Sunday school is not doing business on Easy 
Street where the consciences of the indolent 
may be soothed. This needs to be made 
clear. The Sunday school is intended to aid 



120 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

the home, to supplement and make its work 
easier and more abiding. 

4. What the Sunday School Is to Do 
/. It Is to Assist the Church in Her Work 

But speaking positively now, we might, in 
a comprehensive way, say the aim of the 
Sunday school should be to assist the Church 
in carrying out her "great commission." 
This is a logical inference from our consid- 
eration of "The Place of the Sunday 
School." We saw that it sprang from the 
heart of the Church; that it is the child of 
the Church; that it draws its sanction and 
life from the Church. It is an integral part 
of the Church. Its officers and teachers, and 
the vast majority of its members, are identi- 
fied with the Church. Its independent ex- 
istence is not only inadmissible, but impos- 
sible also. It would completely lose its 
identity, deny its origin and purpose, and 
collapse were it to seek to exist by itself and 
for itself. It has ecclesiastical authority be- 
hind it, and should honor, serve, obey, love 
and esteem the parent institution. 

It is not our thought to imply that the 
Sunday school is to attempt to do all the 
work assigned to the Christian Church, of 
which it is a part. One branch of a tree 
is not supposed to bear fruit for the whole 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 121 

tree. The arm is not the whole body, and 
cannot do all the work the body is to per- 
form. The personality accomplishes its pur- 
poses through many members. The Church 
in the full tide of her life has created numer- 
ous agencies, through all of which she is en- 
deavoring to carry out the Lord's command. 

And since the Sunday school lives and 
moves and has its being within the Church, 
its achievements must be for the good of 
that institution. Its aim is to serve her, its 
fruitage is to be for her honor; and before 
her the Sunday school must be brought for 
a reckoning. If the congregation, through 
her officers or a special committee, were to 
evaluate her school more frequently, test its 
methods and judge its fruits, the unity of 
the two organizations would be less likely 
to be lost sight of. Whatever we may say 
the aim of the Sunday school is, that aim 
will and must always fall within the mission 
of the Christian Church in the world. Both 
the congregation and its school are weighed 
in the same scales. 

May it be that we make a mistake in say- 
ing, The congregation did this and the school 
did that? or, The congregation gave so much 
for benevolence and the school gave so 
much? Are we not putting asunder what 
God has joined together? Would it not be 



122 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

better to say that the congregation did this 
or that through the school? For what is the 
school but the congregation specializing in 
the field of religious education? 

And while not specifically defining its aim, 
it is eminently proper to say that the school 
is true to its mission when it is true to the 
highest interests of the congregation of which 
it is an integral part. 

2. It Is to Instruct in the Word of God 

But to analyze the subject a little more 
carefully, let me give what may be agreed 
upon as an all-inclusive and satisfactory 
statement of the aim of the Sunday school. 
It is this : Instruction in the word of God 
for the twofold purpose of personal salva- 
tion and unselfish service. 

This statement of aim requires the consid- 
eration of three things : 1. Instruction in the 
Scriptures. 2. Personal salvation. 3. Un- 
selfish service. The three may or may not 
be simultaneous. They may or may not be 
continuous. But the logical order is to be 
found in the way they are here stated. 

Instruction in the Scriptures is the first 
thing to be done. The immediate object of 
the school is to cause the pupil to know the 
truth. This preserves the central idea of the 
school, which is that of religious education. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 123 

We cannot lead either to salvation or service 
without first causing another to know some- 
thing about the divine revelation. God's 
word is life, and no other word is. It has 
the unique distinction of being able to make 
wise unto salvation. The entrance of that 
word — not into the head only, but into the 
heart as well — giveth light. Of course there 
must be an intellectual before there can be 
a spiritual apprehension of the truth. 

The Bible is not an end in itself. It is 
the instrument God has given through which 
lost man might come to know Jesus Christ, 
in whom there is life. That this is the com- 
mon understanding of it is evident from our 
theological terminology. If you were asked 
what the means of grace are, you would re- 
ply, "The means of grace are the word and 
sacraments." And your answer would be 
declared correct. The Bible, then, is a 
means of grace. It is not the end, the blessed 
consummation, the summit and glory of all. 
Holy men were not inspired to write the 
various parts of the Bible, and other holy 
men divinely led to bring them together 
simply that we might have a book. They 
were penned and collected for the express 
purpose of becoming a lamp upon our path- 
way, the instrument of our salvation. We 
most honor the Bible and best preserve it 



124 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

when we faithfully teach it. 

It is because the Bible is to be thought of 
in this light that most students of religious 
pedagogy nowadays make the child central 
in the school. They say the Bible is a means 
to an end, while the development of Chris- 
tian character is the end of our work. We 
can see the reasonableness of their conten- 
tion, and shall have no controversy with 
them, so long as they do not by the same 
sign discredit the Bible. There isn't any ad- 
vantage in getting the pupil above the Bible 
if, first of all, we must put the Scriptures on 
a level with human productions. 

The Bible is a means to an end. We will 
all grant that. It is the only way known 
among men whereby the sinner can be 
brought to a state of personal salvation and 
a life of unselfish service. We are shut up 
to this one way; if we fail to make plain 
the terms of redemption as laid down in this 
book we do it at the peril of our souls. It 
is the way ordained above, and the truth 
will be effectual in the hearts of men if it 
is not resisted. It is our duty to cause the 
scholars to know the word of God. And 
that is not teaching which does not cause 
another to know. No matter how learned 
we may be, how fluent of speech, how en- 
thusiastic, if we have not added something 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 125 

to the store of religious knowledge of the 
class each time we appeared before it, we 
have not taught. 

Someone says the work of the Sunday 
school is threefold: first, teach the Script- 
ures; second, teach the Scriptures; third, 
teach the Scriptures. 

The knowledge of the Bible we are speak- 
ing about is not the ability to answer certain 
catch questions. That is as unsatisfactory 
as it is superficial. There is a popular notion 
abroad that to be familiar with some obscure 
and unimportant references in the Bible 
marks one as a profound student of religion. 
A long list of questions can be compiled, 
no one of which touches upon fundamentals. 
As an illustration of what I mean, I give 
part of an editorial from a Cincinnati daily, 
clipped a year or more ago. That editorial 
says : 

"Chicago church-goers have discovered 
that their knowledge of the Bible is limited. 
Ministers have sought to explain the ig- 
norance of the Scriptures displayed by a Chi- 
cago congregation, but the fact remains that 
church-goers and former attendants of Sun- 
day schools were unable to answer questions 
that should have been simple for one famil- 
iar with the greatest of all classics. 

"The members of a prominent Chicago 



126 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

church foundered on these questions : What 
man threw stones at a king? What was the 
origin of the word 'shibboleth'? When did 
the bleating of sheep foretell the loss of a 
kingdom? What fierce nations were driven 
out of their cities by hornets? What giant 
king had an iron bedstead thirteen feet long 
and six feet wide? What young man lost 
his temper in an argument with four older 
friends? Who escaped by the skin of his 
teeth?" 

How simple these questions are you will 
learn when you try to answer them. They 
have to do only with the drapery of revela- 
tion. They may or may not be remembered 
in the pursuit of the soul after God. It does 
not follow that because we cannot answer 
these and like questions we are, therefore, 
ignorant of the Scriptures, or that because 
we can answer them we are real students of 
the word. 

It is our duty to give the pupils a knowl- 
edge of the body of divine truth, an ac- 
quaintance with those events which constitute 
the heart of the Bible and go to the heart 
of the listener. To teach the Bible is to 
make the will of Jehovah known, and not 
merely to put the pupils in possession of a 
few isolated and unrelated facts, and minor 
ones at that. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 127 

None will gainsay the statement that there 
is woeful ignorance of the Bible to-day. And 
that ignorance obtains among our Sunday 
school hosts as well as elsewhere. It is 
hard to believe that in our midst is an or- 
ganization, bearing the dignified title of 
school, that touches weekly and directly one- 
fifth of our population, and yet leaves in 
its train such gross and inexcusable ignorance 
of the world's greatest book. One declares 
that the Sunday school is crucified between 
two thieves — sacerdotalism on the one hand 
and secularism on the other. But the major- 
ity of schools are not troubled by sacerdo- 
talism; secularism cannot be so easily ex- 
cused. If one were looking for a substitute 
for sacerdotalism he might find it in incom- 
petency, which opens the door for secular- 
ism. Notwithstanding my warm advocacy 
of the Sunday school, I cannot help feeling 
that there lies at its door part of the respon- 
sibility for the Bible being a sealed book. 
It matters little what else it may do, if it 
does not acquaint its millions with the con- 
tents of the Scriptures it has failed. No by- 
product of its labors will save it from re- 
proach and ultimate extinction. It will stand 
or fall upon its ability to put the Bible into 
the head and heart of the people. 

It is certainly not unreasonable to expect 



128 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

that when a pupil reaches the age of four- 
teen or fifteen, having spent at least ten of 
them in a Sunday school, he should know 
some things. And he should know what he 
knows. What should a boy of this age 
know ? Have we the right to expect that he 
be in possession of certain Bible facts? If 
so, of what? 

He should know something of our first 
parents and their expulsion from Eden, of 
Noah and the flood, of the call of Abraham 
and God's promise to him, of the eventful 
life of Jacob, of how Israel got into Egypt, 
of the deliverance and building of the nation 
under Moses, of the conquest of Canaan 
by Joshua, something of a few of the judges, 
of the three kings, of the division of the king- 
dom and the decline of both parts, of the 
captivity and return, something of the life 
and ministry of John the Baptist and of 
Jesus, of the call of the twelve apostles and 
their work. He should know the books of 
the Bible, the commandments, a few Psalms, 
the Beatitudes, and other choice portions of 
God's word. He ought to have a fair knowl- 
edge of the catechism, and of the principal 
doctrines of our Church, and of the rules 
of Christian living. 

I am aware that we have but one hour a 
week, and that our material equipment is 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 129 

awfully inadequate, and that there are 
numerous things to bury our work out of 
sight, nevertheless I believe that those who 
attend with any degree of regularity ought 
to be in possession of the outstanding facts 
of the Bible. Our only hope of reaching the 
souls of men and of bringing them into living 
relationship with Jesus Christ is through the 
word. That makes the immediate aim of 
the Sunday school very clear and specific. 

3. To Lead to Personal Salvation 

The second step in the aim of the Sunday 
school is the salvation of the individual. The 
total aim, we said, is instruction in the word 
of God for the twofold purpose of personal 
salvation and unselfish service. " The word 
salvation is not used here in its limited sense 
of leading men to accept Jesus Christ as 
their Saviour. We mean to put into it all 
the processes by which a soul is brought into 
the fullness of the stature of Christ. It in- 
cludes leading men to Christ and training 
them up in Christ. In one case it may mean 
regeneration, in another conversion, in all 
training, character-building, growth in grace 
through the means of grace. Salvation in 
the Biblical sense has this comprehensive 
meaning. 

This salvation, however we may think of 



130 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

the term, is effected by means of the Bible. 
The first step and the last step, and all be- 
tween in the work of character-building, are 
accomplished through the application of the 
truth. The Scriptures are necessary to il- 
lumination, conviction of sin, justification, 
regeneration, conversion and sanctification. 
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
word of God. The grace for every good 
work begun, continued and ended in Christ 
is mediated to us through the word. 

Salvation through the teaching of the law 
and the gospel, and the administration of 
the sacraments, is the aim to be held steadily 
before the school. It should be talked 
about, definitely planned for and expected. 
No aim, however large, will keep itself to 
the front. That must be seen to of deliber- 
ate purpose. The lesson is to be prepared 
by the teacher with no smaller objective than 
the spiritual good of his pupils. Their home 
training, environment, temperament, asso- 
ciations, likes and dislikes, must be studied 
so that the word may be presented in such a 
way as best to reach the end sought. Those 
who make teaching a thing of ease cannot 
be indwelt by a compelling motive. To be 
required to answer for the safety of the 
souls of half a dozen boys will make us ap- 
proach our task with solemnity. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 131 

Have you the impression that the average 
school could afford to allow this aim to oc- 
cupy a more commanding place than it does? 
It is not sufficient that we have a good time, 
and enjoy the sprightly fellowship, and sing 
heartily, and have perfect attendance, and 
break all records. We must go deeper. 
We must lead those entrusted to us into the 
secret place of the Most High. We must 
make those who are already His long for a 
fuller consecration and a humbler walk. We 
must make those who are living in the far 
country say, "I will arise and go to my 
Father." 

Sometimes we hear it said that results be- 
long to God, that if there are to be any 
results He must give them. That is true. 
The increase is from Him. But that lop- 
sided doctrine has worked perniciously in the 
practical affairs of the Sunday school. God 
uses instruments in the attainment of re- 
sults. And the better the instruments, the 
more faithful, the more sacrificing, the 
larger the fruitage. There is serious danger 
that we shall fall into the thinking, as loose 
as it is perilous, that if we just go through 
the form of serving Him He will grant a 
return. That is heresy of the rankest sort. 
Sunday school leaders, whether in a large or 
small place, must be made to feel that they 



132 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

are responsible for results in the last analy- 
sis, and just about as directly connected with 
them as the Lord Himself. And that will 
ever remain so as long as He chooses to use 
human agents for the accomplishment of 
His holy and glorious ends. Did you never 
read that he that soweth bountifully shall 
also reap bountifully? And that does not 
apply to giving alone, but to service of every 
description. The general who does not win 
battles is removed, and yet God is the God 
of battles. The tenant who does not raise 
good crops is asked to pass on, and yet God 
alone can give the increase in nature. The 
minister who does not add members to the 
church and deepen the spirituality of his 
people may look for another pulpit, and yet 
there is no soul-movement upward in which 
God does not have a hand. As we sow we 
reap. God is responsible for results, but 
He has so arranged it that He has taken us 
into partnership with Himself in this re- 
sponsibility. Our part is to plant and water, 
His is to multiply. Both are necessary. We 
cannot work without Him, and He does not 
work without us. 

The Sunday school that does not lead souls 
to Christ and train up souls in Christ is a 
travesty on the name. Results are to be ex- 
pected, looked for, seen and handled. They 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 133 

must be as tangible as the harvest that 
springs up in the track of the husbandman. 
They may be had if we go after them, and 
in the economy of grace we may come home 
bringing our sheaves with us. Not enter- 
tainment, but salvation in its broadest sense 
must be the dominant note in our work. 

There are the baptized children. They 
constitute a large proportion of the school's 
membership. They are God's children, in- 
corporated through baptism into the Chris- 
tian Church. Grace has been ministered to 
them through baptism, and they stand in 
covenant relationship with their heavenly 
Father. They are not strangers, aliens, and 
without hope. They are not to be dealt 
with as though they were unforgiven and life 
had not been bestowed upon them. They are 
Christians; true, they are untrained and un- 
developed, but Christians nevertheless. 
They have been brought into the fold and 
made members of the Church through this 
initiatory sacrament. 

What has the Sunday school to do for 
the salvation of this class? Manifestly not 
to convert them. That would be the saddest 
thing that ever could happen them. For 
conversion means a change of mind, a dif- 
ferent standing, a reversal of position. That 
would put these little ones away from God 



134 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

and out of the merciful covenant. 

The attitude of the Sunday school to- 
ward these persons is twofold. First, to 
recognize their saved state, their acceptance 
in the Beloved. Second, to train them up in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
They are to be taught the word of God. 
They are to be brought into consciousness 
of the gift and inheritance that became theirs 
through baptism. The child must be taught 
to walk, talk, labor and think. The same 
must be done for him in the spiritual life. 
The content of baptism is to be developed. 
The little ones are babes in Christ and need 
to be fed and strengthened and brought to 
stability of Christian character. The school 
is to make it as hard for them to do wrong 
and as easy to do right as possible. It is 
to restrain the evil and foster the good. As 
the intellectual faculties of the child unfold, 
he is to be led to see he belongs to Jesus, 
and is expected to remain true to the cove- 
nant made in baptism. The baptized chil- 
dren then are not to be looked upon as sub- 
jects for future regeneration. 

Of course, we are not to forget that these 
babes in Christ must, when they come to 
years of discretion, make choice for them- 
selves. They will have to decide for their 
fathers' God. They cannot always be Chris- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 135 

tians by proxy. The vows assumed for them 
in infancy are to become their own by de- 
liberate decision. They must confess Christ 
with their own lips if the purposes of grace 
are not to be thwarted. However, this act 
is not the new birth. The work of the school 
for these is instruction, training, develop- 
ment of the life early implanted. 

But the school has to deal with another 
class. Some who have been baptized re- 
ceived no home training, and, as a result, 
are living in sin. Grace was bestowed upon 
them in vain, and God's will for them was 
thwarted through human delinquencies. 
Then there are those who have never been 
baptized. Some of these are young people, 
others are adults. They have never been 
offered to Christ by another, nor have they 
offered themselves. It is the business of the 
school to lead them to Christ, to urge upon 
them the necessity of choosing Him as their 
personal Saviour. This feature of our work 
dare not be minimized. The new birth is as 
essential now as when Jesus spoke to Nicode- 
mus, or Paul to the Philippian jailer. The 
streets are full of young and old who are not 
Christians. The Lutheran Sunday school 
owes them something. We are not to be 
satisfied to hold the baptized child. We 
must go out and compel others to come in. 



136 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The Sunday school is to be a spiritual home, 
a saving refuge, and evangelizing agency. It 
is incumbent upon us to make disciples of all 
men. The other we should do, but we are 
not to leave this undone. Our full work 
must include both preservation and rescue. 

There is a general feeling among our lead- 
ers that the Lutheran Sunday schools, as a 
rule, have not performed their part in bring- 
ing the lost adults in their communities to 
Christ. There are two reasons for this, 
neither of which excuses us. The first is the 
spiritual care we have given the children. 
But why should this ever lead us to pass by 
the man who is staggering on toward the 
grave without a saving knowledge of the way 
of life? Sometimes we have had it preached 
into us that our duty is to look after certain 
nationalities, our own by birth and training. 
That is part of our duty, and only a part. 
The second reason is found in our antago- 
nism to a certain type of evangelism, and, as 
a result, we have swung off so far that it al- 
most seems at times that we have lost the 
evangelistic note in our preaching and teach- 
ing. This may be denied, but we only ask 
that existing facts be studied. 

The Sunday school, especially the upper 
departments, can be made an evangelistic 
force. It is the largest field for this work 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 137 

the Lutheran Church has to-day. It affords 
an opportunity for systematic effort, and the 
appeal to the unsaved is an attractive one. 
We must stress the evangelistic note. If we 
grow indifferent to the gray-haired sinner, 
God will remove the candlestick from its 
place. 

4. To Train in Unselfish Service 

The last step in the aim of the Sunday 
school is service. Through instruction in the 
Scriptures comes salvation, and through both 
of these comes unselfish service. Our pupils 
are to serve the church, the home, the com- 
munity, the state. Being helped, they are to 
help others. Being saved, they are to save 
others. 

There is an important law with which we 
are all familiar. It runs thus : Where there 
is no expression there has been no impres- 
sion. The Christian life cannot be a Dead 
Sea, all-receiving, nothing-giving. What has 
been well wrought in will work itself out. 
It simply cannot live by itself. Christianity 
not only changes a person's attitude toward 
God, it also changes his attitude toward his 
neighbor. If it does not make him a better 
husband and father, or a more dutiful son, 
it "hasn't taken." If it does not put within 
the pupils a feeling that they are their broth- 



138 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

er's keeper, a desire to clothe the naked, feed 
the hungry and to do unto others as they 
would be done by, an understanding of their 
place and responsibility as Christians in the 
social and industrial order, a disposition to 
give of their substance and to consecrate 
themselves as the inner light directs toward 
the evangelization of the whole world, then, 
I say, they need to be born again. 

A Sunday school, like any other religious 
organization, is to be judged by its fruits, 
and one of its most precious fruits is a glad 
and unselfish service among its membership. 
The school must relate its teaching to the 
practical affairs of life. More than attend- 
ance upon divine worship and a periodical 
gift for benevolent objects is required. Our 
religion is to cover the seven days and sanc- 
tify every relationship embraced therein, and 
to bring all the powers of one's mind and 
spirit under the dominion of the Lord Jesus. 

Teaching is to lead to doing. "Faith with- 
out works is dead," is as true in Sunday 
school as in church. As a general thing, 
young people and older want to do some- 
thing. We do not sing that hymn, "Oh, to 
be nothing, nothing," as much as we used to, 
and it is well. Our schools like to sing the 
heroic, martial music, and to study about 
those men and women who have flung them- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 139 

selves into some great cause, spending and 
being spent for it. They do not get to be 
very old before they begin to interpret life 
in terms of service. They select for their 
ideals those who have done something. No 
appeal is stronger than that which calls into 
activity their faculties and powers. 

The pupils should be taught where and 
how to work. They may be bashful, awk- 
ward and untrained, but their eagerness to 
be of service, and their quick response to 
calls of one kind or another, offers one of 
the largest opportunities we have. Of what 
use are an informed mind, a warm heart, 
and an aroused conscience, if they be not re- 
lated to the tasks needing to be done? It is 
incumbent upon us to train and develop 
workers in the school for the congregation, 
the community, and wider fields. 

How imperative all this is will become ap- 
parent to anyone upon a moment's reflec- 
tion. Our workers must come largely out 
of the Sunday school. The truths taught the 
child must find expression in daily life. He 
is to take his place in the Christian Church 
and serve her. It ought to be true that those 
who have had the advantages of a Sunday 
school training are among the most intelli- 
gent, loyal and active members of the congre- 
gation. The school is not to train away 



140 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

from the church, but for her. 

We cannot help being impressed with the 
fact that on the average about one-fifth of 
the membership of our schools have some 
definite task to perform in connection with 
the school's activity aside from lesson study. 
We do not minimize the lesson. It must 
hold the central place. But it is not all. 
When the Bible is faithfully taught it will 
cause those taught to rise up and say, "Here 
am I, Lord, send me." Impression without 
expression is an impossibility. That is one 
reason the Sunday school is so popular. It 
provides a large field for the exercise of in- 
dividual gifts. Those who want to work can 
usually find something to do. 

But it devolves upon us to train workers 
with large vision. They must think of more 
than local school and church. They have 
part in a world program. The school that 
would save its life must lose it. One has 
said that the difference between a statesman 
and a politician is this: a statesman says, 
"My country," while a politician says, "My 
ward." There are Christians who have a 
politician's outlook; they are provincial in 
their thought and effort. They are satisfied 
if their school grows, and their church pros- 
pers, and their community is made better. 
Then there are others whose thoughts are 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 141 

continental and world-wide; they interpret 
the success of their own organizations in the 
light of the success of the whole kingdom of 
God. They know they have failed unless 
they have contributed something in prayer, 
gift and life to the wider work. 

It is a sad commentary on the teaching and 
general influence of many of our schools 
that in their twenty-five, fifty, or more years 
of existence, they have never sent out from 
their membership a minister, a missionary, 
or a deaconess. Mr. Charles G. Trumbull 
declares that u the day is coming when the 
Sunday school that has not sent some of its 
members to a home or foreign mission field, 
while at the same time numbering still others 
in its membership as volunteers, pledged to 
go, will be ashamed and self-condemned." 
The assertion startles. Possibly our first im- 
pulse is to protest. Our second is to sit down 
and calmly think it over. Our third is to 
consent. Our fourth is to help realize it. 
Our fifth is to ask the Lord if He wants us 
or ours in some remote field. 

When we talk of more young men for the 
ministry, or of enlisting recruits for any 
other kind of religious service, we must take 
the Sunday school into account. Its influence 
is unmeasurable. Its pupils, young and old, 
should be led to believe that Christian service 



142 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

is expected of them, and that if the light that 
is in them is not to become darkness, they 
must do good to all men and become the 
servant of all. "For we have not reached, 
to any appreciable degree, the end of all high 
training until we have learned that we live 
best when we live least for ourselves and 
most for others. That man is richest in soul 
who has given most to enrich other souls; 
that man is a beggar in his spirit who has 
never done kindly ministrations to his fellow- 
men." — Governor M. G. Brumbaugh, Ph.D. 

The public schools are expected to make 
intelligent, patriotic citizens. The Church, 
through her various agencies, is expected to 
make Christian citizens. Knowledge be- 
comes power only when linked to faith in 
God. 

The aim of the Sunday school is clear. It 
is to instruct its pupils in the word of God, 
to bring them into conscious relationship 
with Jesus Christ, to provide them with high 
ideals, and to lead them to the source of 
power for the realizaton of those ideals. It 
is to teach, guide, warn, save and train them, 
building them up into a Christlike character, 
and sending them out to become useful mem- 
bers of society and worthy citizens in the 
kingdom of God. 

When John was near the end of his gos- 






CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 143 

pel, he said, "These" — miracles, parables, 
wonderful discourses, revelations — "are writ- 
ten that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing 
ye might have life through His name." 

In seeking the aim of the Sunday school, 
we sum it up by saying, these- — room built 
and equipped, officers elected, teachers 
chosen, classes formed, lesson helps pro- 
vided, instruction given, prayer offered, 
hymns sung — are supplied and operated that 
the pupils might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing 
they might have life through His name. 



THE EFFICIENCY OF THE SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 

Of what use are aims unless we strive to 
attain them? They may be very high and 
worthy, but if we do not reach out after 
them and daily come nearer their realiza- 
tion, they are utterly worthless. It is not 
probable any of us ever come into full pos- 
session of all the good goals we set before 
us, but he never fails who tries, no matter 
how far off he finds himself when he must 
quit the race. "He who does his best is 
God's blue ribbon man." 

Having located in the last chapter the 
chief aim of the Sunday school, we are ready 
to consider now the methods to be pursued 
and the agencies to be employed in reaching 
that aim. This is the logical order. We 
want to know how to make the school most 
effective in leading its pupils to personal 
salvation and unselfish service through the 
study of the Holy Scriptures. This is a para- 
mount question. Multitudes of workers are 
having their ears to the ground to-day, eager 
to learn how their schools may the better 

144 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 145 

accomplish what they have been set to do. 
They are ready to abandon the honored tra- 
ditions of the past as to method if they can 
be assured of something superior. That is 
one healthful sign about a goodly number of 
our schools. They are willing to learn. They 
are not irretrievably committed to precedent. 
They know they have not attained. They 
are not satisfied with present achievements. 
They would love to move out into the more 
spacious areas of usefulness. They await 
the larger light. 

How, then, may the Sunday school, the 
Lutheran Sunday school, do the work that 
has solemnly been committed to it? We 
shall speak of three things : First, the build- 
ing; second, the literature; third, the leader- 
ship. 

1. The Building 

The Sunday school building has more to 
do with efficiency than we are wont to be- 
lieve. When God made this earth it car- 
ried two marks. The one was beauty, the 
other usefulness. And these marks are with 
it still. The room or rooms used for the 
school of the church should be beautiful and 
serviceable. It is needless to speak here of 
the influence of environment. It does not 
follow that because environment is good that 



146 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

the individuals upon whose lives that environ- 
ment beats will be good and pure. That is 
claiming too much for it. But if you and I 
were to be granted our choice there would 
be a unanimous vote in favor of wholesome, 
helpful, uplifting surroundings. 

Not enough attention has been given to 
the location or arrangement of the place 
where the school must do its work. This is 
not so surprising. Only recently have we 
come to think properly of what a church 
should be. Better Sunday school facilities 
are coming. If not this generation, then 
surely the next one will meet in buildings 
more adapted to the purpose. None of us 
will deny the church the right to have the 
more elaborate, beautiful and expensive 
building. But to plant the church down on 
a lot and give to school purposes whatever 
space may be left, is neither good business 
nor good religion. 

I was lately taken through a church in one 
of our large cities by the pastor. The struc- 
ture had been built but a year or two before. 
I was first shown through the auditorium, 
which was churchly and impressive. Then 
we went into the Sunday school building. 
The rooms in which the upper grades met 
were ideal. Then he led me down stairs. 
The way was dark, and the pastor said I 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 147 

would have to watch my steps. We were 
soon in the Primary and Beginners' depart- 
ments. The air was damp, the concrete 
floors were actually wet; the walls were 
moldy in places, the plaster had begun 
to fall away, and it is not possible on the 
brightest day to carry on the work of these 
departments without the use of artificial 
light. It is impossible to change materially 
many of our school buildings, but when new 
ones are erected they ought to have the very 
best facilities. 

Why is it that children have so often 
been assigned the most undesirable quarters? 
The child is central in the school, and should 
be determinative of the school's policy. But 
our practice does not comport with our doc- 
trine. The child should have the best. If 
we take him for Christ it will be when he is 
young, and no small contribution will be 
made by his surroundings. Let the men's 
and the other older classes occupy the less 
desirable rooms. 

A Sunday school building should be com- 
fortable, conveniently arranged, well-lighted 
and ventilated, and easy of access, with the 
best of everything for the children. Let us 
learn once for all that darkness and gloom 
are not specially conducive to a religious at- 
mosphere. It is of decided advantage to 



148 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

have the departments of the school separated 
by sliding or folding doors. Where this can- 
not be done screens or improvised curtains 
can be used. The curtains can be suspended 
on wires or piping; the screens can be re- 
moved and the curtains can be drawn back, 
thus throwing the whole school into one when 
desired. It is scarcely possible to estimate 
the value of these for class work until they 
are tried. It is childish to argue against 
them on esthetic grounds. 

Comfortable chairs are no more expen- 
sive than uncomfortable ones. Sand tables 
should be provided for the smaller children 
at least, and ordinary square tables of con- 
venient size about which classes may gather 
with their teachers. Blackboards, maps and 
charts should not be wanting. Religious 
mottoes and pictures should be hung upon 
the walls. In this way walls can be made to 
talk. I frequent a Sunday school in which 
hang numerous mottoes, artistically framed. 
Here are two of them: "Not America for 
America's sake, but America for the world's 
sake"; and, "If our religion is not true, we 
ought to change it; if it is true, we are bound 
to propagate it." They are always preach- 
ing a sermon. 

The commandments, creed, psalms and 
beatitudes are more quickly memorized 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 149 

from large charts than from the small type 
found in lesson helps. The unveiling of pic- 
tures of great men impresses lessons never 
to be forgotten. It is a good thing to change 
pictures and mottoes from time to time. This 
arrests attention. Critics will say they op- 
pose having the walls disfigured. But in a 
Sunday school room religious education has 
the right of way. Imagine Gregory's seven 
laws framed and hung up. They would 
teach teachers every week how to do their 
work better. Have you tried to use your 
wall space? 

And if you ever saw children stand along 
the streets drinking in the suggestions of bill- 
boards, or feasting their eyes on the contents 
of a show window, or begging for the little 
pictures that come with the weekly lessons, 
you have some conception of the good that 
may be accomplished by placing pictures on 
the walls. They are not expensive. Excel- 
lent reproductions of the best can be had at 
little cost. The eye-gate of childhood is very 
busy, and impressions made in this way will 
abide long after what we said has been for- 
gotten. 

Most of the furnishings we have men- 
tioned, save the modern building, are within 
the financial ability of a good porportion of 
our schools. But schools are bare of these 



150 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

things, either because our fathers did not have 
them or we do not know of their worth. The 
day is now at hand when they may be counted 
indispensable. They aid in obtaining and 
giving a knowledge of the Bible. Nothing 
but the best we can afford is good enough for 
the Sunday school. It cannot do its work 
with antiquated tools, much less with no tools 
at all. Money put into the school is invested 
in character. A bright, cheery room, with 
modern equipment and up-to-date helps, im- 
mediately improves the order of the school, 
is conducive to the spirit of worship and 
Bible study, increases the avenues of knowl- 
edge, and tends to beget in the pupils a de- 
sire for communion with the heavenly Father. 
A dilapidated-looking room, which might be 
remedied by setting aside a few pennies a 
week, does not minister to good morals. Let 
the church have the best, but let the Sunday 
school have the next best. The signs of im- 
provement in this direction are so encourag- 
ing that the next twenty-five years will wit- 
ness a healthy transformation even in our 
humbler schools. 

2. The Literature 
The amount of Sunday school literature 
sent throughout our country is almost unbe- 
lievable. The editor of one denominational 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 151 

house says that they alone send out a million 
and a quarter copies weekly. Multiply that 
many, many times, and we have some idea 
of the volume of literature that goes Sun- 
day and weekdays into the hands of some 
twenty millions of Sunday school pupils, and 
thence into homes and hearts that would not 
otherwise be touched. The possibilities here 
offered are beyond our dreams, and impose a 
responsibility that makes the sober-minded 
tremble. The Church has been seriously 
concerned with the field thus presented, and 
well she may be, for as goes our literature 
so goes America. The wild contest for the 
ear and the eye of the public demonstrates 
the accuracy of the statement. If the litera- 
ture our young people get hold of and read 
can be kept true to the principles and ideals 
upon which this republic was founded, we 
need have no fear for the future. By far the 
largest proportion of the literature that finds 
its way into any congregation goes through 
the Sunday school. Its influence is incalcula- 
ble, and the total result eternity alone will 
disclose. 

/. The Bible and Lesson Helps. 

Let us start with this proposition which 
none will be even tempted to dispute : The 
Bible is central and fundamental, and should 



152 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

determine the character of all the literature 
made available for our pupils. As all roads 
led to Rome, so all lesson helps, charts and 
mottoes, music books and reference and read- 
ing books in the library should lead toward 
the Bible. Nothing that calls into question 
the integrity and authority of the Book 
should for a moment be tolerated. There 
may be an abundance of room in the school, 
but none of it can be given over to sheets 
that assault the Scriptures even by insinua- 
tion. 

It is more than unfortunate that here and 
there are schools which persist in ordering 
papers and helps because they are cheap. 
There isn't anything in all the world cheaper 
than the literature of infidels and agnostics. 
It can be had almost for the asking. But 
it exacts a terrible toll when estimated in 
terms of conduct, character and life. As 
much as we fear the consequences of the cir- 
culation of such reading matter, there is 
another thing even more to be dreaded, and 
that is the literature that carries high-sound- 
ing titles and pretends to be Christian, and 
yet, with a seductiveness that eludes the eye 
of the average reader, denies the faith of our 
fathers, the faith once for all delivered to the 
saints, and repudiates the cardinal doctrines 
of the Bible. It is being persistently distrib- 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 153 

uted among our people, at our very church 
doors and through the mails, and it seems 
there is no way by which it can be stopped. 
Our only hope is in furnishing those com- 
mitted to our charge the antidote, a literature 
that is absolutely loyal to the word of God, 
and in such quantities and at such popular 
prices as to save them from the threatening 
peril of skepticism and heresy. Can we get 
the product of our printing presses upon the 
family table first? Can we engage the 
thought of the growing boys and girls until 
they are so rooted and grounded in the faith 
that they will resist false doctrines? 

The Bible ought to have a large place in 
class work when the pupils have reached the 
age at which they can handle books and read 
with some degree of intelligence. We can 
conceive how individuals can be inspired with 
reverence for the Bible without using it, re- 
garding it as a fetish; but we cannot conceive 
how they can acquire a knowledge of the 
Bible and true love for it without becoming 
accustomed to the use of it. Lesson helps 
have given a tremendous impetus to the study 
of religious truth, but it is to be regretted 
that they have relegated the Bibles to some 
dark, dusty corner, if there have been any 
Bibles in the school to relegate to such a 
place. It is obligatory upon us to reassert 



154 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

the Protestant principle, which not only al- 
lows the people at large the privilege of pos- 
sessing the Scriptures, but that also compels 
them to have them. It is a short-sighted 
policy to give scholars a cheap edition of the 
Bible with small print, but if means are lim- 
ited, quite respectable copies can be pur- 
chased in any quantity at small cost. There 
is no reason why a hymn-book, costing 
twenty-five or thirty cents, can be placed in 
the hand of each member of the school, and 
the Bible, which costs no more, cannot be. 

Lesson helps should not all be banished 
from the school. It is to be sadly confessed 
that they seem in some instances to have 
made the Bible a neglected book, but that is 
the exception and not the rule. We min- 
isters have spent some twenty years in school, 
preparing ourselves for our calling; and it 
is to be supposed that if any class of individ- 
uals could get at the meaning of the Script- 
ures without helps of any kind it is our class. 
And yet no secret is being divulged when I 
say that we stay pretty close to our com- 
mentaries, volumes of sermons and treatises 
on theology when we come to the prepara- 
tion of sermons. And it is doubtful if any 
one of us ever prepares a Sunday school les- 
son without availing himself of the material 
furnished by his denomination at least. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 155 

To expect our teachers and pupils to come 
to a knowledge of the truth without outside 
aid is to expect what rarely has been done, 
and what the wisest and best of persons 
do not do themselves. Lesson helps have 
a place and a mission, but they are to lead 
to and exalt the Bible, not to supplant it. If 
a school that assumes to call itself a Bible 
school loses sight of the Bible it is pursu- 
ing a policy that is inconsistent and self-de- 
structive. It is being proved every Lord's 
Day that helps do not necessarily obscure or 
supplant the Bible, but that they increase the 
knowledge of and love for God's holy word. 

Personally I do not object to the introduc- 
tion of extra-Biblical material for study in 
the school, provided it recognizes the word 
of God, is based on a portion of it, and is 
made subordinate. I can see how material 
of this character can serve a most useful end. 
My own conviction is that the divine revela- 
tion has been closed, that the way of life 
and all needful to be known to produce sav- 
ing faith and good works is found in the 
Bible; but I am equally convinced that while 
revelation has closed, God has been using 
the progress of the Christian Church through 
all these centuries for the illumination and 
illustration of that supernatural revelation, 
and that He wants us to study saving truth 



156 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

in the light of what has taken place since 
Calvary and Pentecost. This is all the out- 
working of the word of Holy Writ, and 
becomes in turn confirmatory of its divine 
character and the evidence of its claims upon 
the attention of men. We have all heard 
ministers preach on the Reformation, on 
Luther's life and work, on the Patriarch 
Muhlenberg, and other persons and epochs in 
Christian history, and we never thought the 
dignity of the pulpit was thereby lowered. 
Observing the principle above stated, the 
Bible first and central in every lesson, no 
serious objection can be lodged against the 
consideration of the lessons the gospel has 
written deep in the history of Christianity. 
Someone said, "I never knew the Bible until 
I knew Judson." The reason our people so 
often go wandering here and there, and are 
caught in the current of loose religious think- 
ing, is because they are ignorant of the his- 
tory, spirit and genius of our Church. It 
is not to be concluded, therefore, that we 
are untrue to the Bible when we study in 
Church and Sunday school the movements 
in which God's hand is so clearly manifest. 
The literature of the Sunday school is to 
make the Bible a more intelligible and com- 
manding book. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 157 

2. The Music 

"Let me write the songs of a people and I 
do not care who writes their laws," says one. 
The history of all great nations might be 
written around their songs. Some seem to 
think that it is not necessary to be particular 
about Sunday school music, because it is only 
for children. That is just what makes it of 
supreme importance. Spiritual impressions 
are received through songs as well as 
through pictures and stories. And since 
earlier impressions outlive later ones, it is 
imperative that the most attention be given 
to the music for the children. They will re- 
member those songs when they come to 
maturity, because they become a part of their 
very souls. 

It is a violation of a well-known law to 
put into a child's mind and spirit what is not 
intended to become a permanent part of his 
character. And it is a violation of every 
religious principle to vitiate a child's taste 
with doggerel and catchy, theatrical trash, 
and unfit him to appreciate the best music. 
We have been singing too much about the 
birds, flowers, meadows and brooks, and 
omitted the themes of the gospel. Many of 
our songs have been puerile and inane. They 
have lacked substance, and hence do not last 
more than a season in books. 



158 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

In repeated testings children, and even 
small children, have shown their preference 
for the old, substantial hymns. That they 
do not care for them and cannot sing them 
is as erroneous as it is harmful, and is a false 
idea some adults are nursing. Children 
should be taught singable, uplifting, worship- 
ful music. Christ should be the center, as 
He is the center of lesson study and prayer. 
They should be told the meaning of the songs 
they sing. Songs that deserve to last have 
just as much melody and movement about 
them as their empty substitutes. And what 
is more, they have noble sentiment, lofty as- 
pirations and spiritual truth. They do more 
than entertain, they feed. And what does 
not feed dare not be admitted into the Sun- 
day school. 

Two remedies may be suggested for the 
elimination of the undesirable and the in- 
troduction of the desirable in the way of 
music for the Sunday school. 

First. There should be a committee ap- 
pointed, the members of which not only un- 
derstand music and the doctrines of the 
Church, but also understand the child and 
appreciate the importance of giving him the 
best. Our mistake has been in yielding to 
the wishes of a person or two who were in- 
competent. Such committee should have the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 159 

courage to suggest the book for use which 
is in harmony with the standards and princi- 
ples of the Church, and which will best de- 
velop the faith and life of the school. 

Secondly. A good chorister or choir 
should be in charge of the music, so that it 
be made attractive and properly learned. 
Ample testimony can be gathered to prove 
the claim that, with only a small amount of 
trouble, music that will stand the test can be 
sung in all departments of the school. It 
is not unusual to hear of the expenditure of 
large sums of money to have good music 
in the congregation. And against this we 
have no word of criticism to offer. With a 
fraction of the same outlay of money, time 
and thought, the problem of Sunday school 
music would happily be solved. Music to be 
dignified and worshipful does not need to 
be impossible of rendition by the average 
school, but it should move upon the feelings, 
answer the deepest aspirations of the soul, 
convey truth, and bring the singer into a 
proper attitude and act of worship and con- 
duct. Simple music may meet all these tests 
and be truly standard. Experience has taught 
us that a well-sustained effort on the part 
of a few for a better grade of music will 
not fail of success. 



160 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

J. The Library 

The library also properly comes under the 
head of Sunday school literature. A few 
years ago the library seemed to be near the 
end of its usefulness. And had it died it 
would not have lived in vain. Judged ac- 
cording to present day standards, the libra- 
ries we knew had their serious defects, but 
they served their generation, and were a part 
of those imperfect institutions which greater 
light and increasing knowledge are improv- 
ing. 

There is a brief chapter of sacred and 
secular history mixed that is uncommonly 
interesting, and should often be rehearsed. 
To get it vividly before us I quote three sen- 
tences from Rev. H. F. Cope, D.D. He 
says : i 'Little did men think, when they heard 
of the school for destitute children being 
formed in England by the printer, Raikes, 
that there was a movement which should do 
more for the popularization of reading 
amongst all classes and for the institution of 
public libraries than any other single agency. 
The free public library owes more to the 
much despised Sunday school library than 
we have been accustomed to reckon. The 
Sunday school library trained the great mid- 
dle classes to reading books, and when the 
taste for reading grew beyond the vision of 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 161 

the Sunday school and its library seemed a 
lamentable failure, the public library became 
an imperative necessity." 

Once more, then, a public institution is 
seen to have sprung from the heart of the 
Church. If one were to ask who the orig- 
inator of the public library was, he would 
receive from many the answer, Mr. Carne- 
gie. Fostered by the gifts of the state and 
by the benefactions of generous-minded men, 
it has far overtowered the modest Sunday 
school library, but it must remember the rock 
whence it was hewn. 

While cheerfully granting that the pub- 
lic libraries are beautiful and offer their un- 
told privileges to men of all classes, we are 
not willing to admit that they are taking the 
place of the Sunday school library. Neither 
officer, teacher or scholar will find in the 
former all he ought to have access to. In 
the average public library will be found a 
goodly number of books on psychology and 
pedagogy, but only a limited collection of 
distinctly religious books, and many of these 
of a type that will not greatly benefit our 
people. Select a public library at random 
and go through it and see how many volumes 
are there that you, if you had your own 
choice, would give first place in a Sunday 
school library. 



162 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Because of this condition, apparent to 
everyone, the Sunday school library has taken 
on a new lease of life. It is here to stay. If 
the public school needs a library — and it 
does — for its teachers and scholars, so does 
the Sunday school. 

The Sunday school library has at least 
three distinct advantages over the public 
library for the membership of the school 
and congregation. 

First. It is more convenient. Many will 
be surprised to know that not one person 
in ten lives within easy reach of a public 
library; and not one in twenty-five visits it 
for religious literature. The weekly visit 
to school or church brings the people to the 
library itself; and if the books are in a con- 
spicuous place they will find readers who 
would not have thought of this or that book 
had they not had the privilege of running 
their eyes along the shelves. We scarcely 
know what we want to read until we see the 
volume before us. 

Second. It contains, or at least should 
contain, those books which the people who 
worship there most need to read. It is sup- 
posed to specialize along the lines of work 
the congregation is carrying on. Where 
would you go if you wanted to learn about 
your Church, its history, its doctrines, its 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 163 

great men, its home and foreign mission 
work? It ought to be possible for you to 
go to your Sunday school library and get 
what you want. And it will be possible 
when the local church takes as much interest 
in the library for its own welfare as it should. 

Third. It helps to make the church the 
center of activity and usefulness, and the in- 
stitution that takes pride in meeting all the 
spiritual needs of all its constituency. That 
is the advantage of having a reading room 
in connection with the Sunday school build- 
ing. It is probable that much of the general 
reading matter at the disposal of the pupils 
can be found at the public library, but if they 
may do their reading under the church roof, 
their affections, interest and loyalty will grav- 
itate toward that place. 

The wholesale and indiscriminate con- 
demnation of the old library is not merited. 
It had points of strength. It had its defects. 
The former will be retained, the latter are 
being eliminated. The enlarged Sunday 
school vision will effect great changes in the 
Sunday school library. 

Not all books in this library need neces- 
sarily be strictly religious. There should be 
a liberal amount of the best fiction suitable 
to pupils of all ages. Books of biography 
are very popular, and when selected with 



164 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

care, will furnish line heroic and ethical 
ideals. Think of the patriots, philanthro- 
pists, consecrated business men, ministers, 
missionaries, temperance reformers and 
other religious leaders, and one can see how 
wide the field from which to select. A few 
well-chosen books on travel, history and 
poetry might be included. Books for parents, 
for the afflicted, and for general religious 
culture should find a place. 

The library of to-day differs from that 
of yesterday not only in the better grade of 
fiction it contains, but even more in the wider 
field of need it seeks to meet. The up-to-date 
library now, in addition to the above-men- 
tioned lines of reading, contains at least the 
following: A commentary on the Bible, a 
life of Christ, of Paul and of Luther, a dic- 
tionary of the Bible, a concordance, a theol- 
ogy of the denomination, a history of the 
Christian Church, and of our own branch 
especially, several volumes on world mis- 
sions and missionary heroes, a history of the 
Sunday school, and the best books of refer- 
ence for all the officers and teachers. This 
somewhat extended list may seem prohib- 
itive to the school of limited means, but it 
is not. It is surprising what can be done by 
honest effort. Some of us will live to see 
the day when a Sunday school without at 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 165 

least a few books on the management of a 
Sunday school and the best methods of teach- 
ing will be as anomalous as a physician's 
office without books on medicine. 

Do you know that our Sunday schools, 
taken as a whole, spend for literature a frac- 
tion less than the price of a postage stamp 
per week upon each pupil? If the returns 
have been unsatisfactory it may be because 
the Church has sown sparingly. Our schools 
have many needs, but one of the greatest is 
for a literature commensurate with the op- 
portunity at hand. I am perfectly sincere in 
the affirmation that Lutheran literature for 
Lutheran churches and Sunday schools will 
net the largest results for our denomination, 
and through it for the kingdom of God. 

3. The Leadership 

j. The Pastor 

He is the pastor of the church, and, there- 
fore, of every organization within that 
church. He is the pastor of the Sunday 
school, and has just as much right to say 
"my Sunday school" as "my church." It is 
his Sunday school, and he is no intruder when 
he is there. He is not usurping authority 
when he lifts up his voice in behalf of its 
management or its teaching. He is pastor 
of the Sunday school and its chief officer. He 



166 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

is the spiritual head, as the superintendent 
is the executive head. The two must see to 
it that they work together with perfect free- 
dom and frankness. Misunderstanding and 
friction here will disrupt the school. It is 
to be supposed that each is a Christian gen- 
tleman, and they should have confidence in 
each other. 

A pastor should never be absent from the 
sessions of the school of his church unless 
it is unavoidable. We have heard of a few 
pastors who did not attend the school. Some 
of these we know had a career as brief as it 
was checkered. The excuse that he is too 
busy has no weight with him or with any 
other right-thinking man. A pastor said, not 
a long while ago, "I have three congegations, 
one in the morning, one in the afternoon and 
one in the evening. The most important one 
is that of the afternoon." It is not likely 
you agree with him from one point of view. 
But think the declaration through before 
you criticise him. 

Occasionally we hear a minister say, "My 
business is to preach the gospel." But if he 
will turn to his Bible, he will see that the 
command to teach stands right alongside the 
command to preach, and that it fell from 
the same holy lips. If he is too busy preach- 
ing to assume responsibility for any other 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 167 

work, let him close the church at one of the 
preaching hours and get into the Sunday 
school. His gains will far exceed his losses. 
Who ever heard of a shepherd so taxed 
with caring for the old sheep that he had no 
time for the lambs? 

The pastor should be in the Sunday school 
as an example. How can he invite others 
to come unless he is faithful in attendance? 
They will look to him and do as he does. 
Certainly, under normal circumstances, he 
should neither superintend nor teach regu- 
larly. But it is likely, in many cases, he will 
have to do the latter. He should be free to 
visit all the departments of the school. The 
practice of spending most of the time in the 
senior and adult departments is not a good 
one. He should make it a point to know all 
the children by name. This will require 
patience and much effort, but it pays large 
dividends. Many have not done it for no 
other reason than that they imagined they 
couldn't. There are schools of six and 
seven hundred, and the pastors know each 
pupil by name. To recognize them in the 
home and on the street and call them by 
name wins their hearts. And I wonder if 
anything less than that is good shepherding. 
The eastern shepherd knows his sheep and 
calls them by name, and they know him. 



168 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The pastor must believe in the Sunday 
school. There is every reason why he should. 
Its providential markings must command his 
devotion. He must believe in its mission, its 
importance, its value as a training school, 
as a recruiting station, as a culturing agency, 
as the church's right arm of power, as a place 
where probably the doctrine of the priest- 
hood of believers is best realized. He should 
believe in it because of the homes it opens to 
him, the extended field of service it gives, 
and the opportunity for judicious and valua- 
ble leadership. It is not improbable he will 
have to blaze the way toward higher effi- 
ciency. He ought to count it a privilege to 
acquaint himself with the best methods of 
Sunday school w r ork, and take the pains to 
make himself a true leader. Pious phrases 
and religious platitudes will not answer here. 

Did you ever hear a pastor say his teach- 
ers were incompetent to do their work? 
Upon second thought that is a reflection upon 
him. Why are they incompetent? Is it of 
deliberate choice, or have they not had an 
honest chance to improve themselves? One 
of the grandest and most far-reaching oppor- 
tunities that ever come across a minister's 
path is to teach his teachers. He is respon- 
sible for the doctrines they hold and dispense 
to their class. Say what you will about it, 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 169 

he is responsible for the way the Bible is 
taught in his school. "And if untaught or 
ill-taught, teachers propagate their igno- 
rance; the inefficiency and ignorance of his 
church, and the struggles of his parishioners 
with doubt must be charged, in large meas- 
ure, to the pastor himself, who, while pre- 
tending to stand for the truth of the Bible, 
has not trained his teachers to teach it." We, 
as pastors, had better give less thought to 
the administration of the school and more 
to doctrine and spirituality. 

It stands to reason that we can do little 
in teaching and training the whole school per- 
sonally and directly. But we can teach and 
train them mediately through the teachers. 
The minister should covet the opportunity 
of entering this field and make the most of it. 

The pastor should not be swift to criti- 
cise the mistakes he sees, but lovingly recog- 
nize the good that is being done and give 
credit where credit is due. If he can win 
and retain the confidence of his officers and 
teachers, he will be in a position to give di- 
rection to the activities of the school with- 
out in the least seeming to be officious. The 
interests of the school are big enough to 
carry into the pulpit not only for announce- 
ment, but for an occasional sermon. The 
congregation needs to know the pastor's 



170 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

sentiments about the school. Such breadth 
of vision and depth of sympathy on his part 
in regard to the work of every department 
of his church will raise up a host of helpers. 

2. The Superintendent 

The superintendent is an important man 
in the organization and growth of a Sunday 
school, but he does not need to know or be 
able to do everything. Aside from the pas- 
tor, more rests upon him than upon any other 
individual. A man may serve in the church 
council and scarcely be known and not often 
seen, but the superintendent is always before 
the public, is well known, and his responsi- 
bilities are onerous. 

He is the pastor's right-hand man. Happy 
is that school whose spiritual and executive 
head are "big brothers." The wise super- 
intendent will recognize the authority and 
leadership of the pastor, and will take coun- 
sel with him on all matters pertaining to 
the welfare of the school. He will not alone 
welcome him to the sessions of school, but 
also invite him to a seat on the platform 
during the opening and closing exercises, and, 
unless the pastor is otherwise engaged, he 
should accept the privilege. The influence 
upon the pupils will be good, and it is a fit- 
ting recognition of the place of the pastor. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 171 

Four qualifications mark a good superin- 
tendent : 

First. He should be a Christian, a mem- 
ber of the church and a man of irreproach- 
able character. No matter what other quali- 
fications he may possess, failing here he fails 
everywhere. He must be respected and 
looked up to by all who know him. Personal 
piety is an asset beyond the weight of any 
other. If it is seen that he cannot be an ex- 
ample to the school, he should be told kindly 
but firmly to vacate the office. It goes with- 
out saying he should be a man of prayer, a 
good student of the Bible, faithful in at- 
tendance upon divine worship, and able to 
say to others, "Be ye followers of me." He 
is engaged in the Lord's work, and he can- 
not be successful at it unless he is in deed 
and in truth the Lord's servant. 

Second. He must be able to work with 
other people. He is not to do all the work 
himself. He stands in the center of an or- 
ganization, and is to say to one person, Do 
this ; to another, Do that ; and say it in such 
a way as to get it done. If he is impatient, 
self-assertive, jealous of his authority and 
vindictive, he is totally unable to preserve 
concord. He simply has to belong to that 
group of choice souls of whom it is said, "He 
is easy to work with." To be able to have 



172 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

your will done without your subordinate 
knowing it is being done is a fine art. A 
superintendent may differ on matters of pol- 
icy from some of his teachers, and yet hold 
their sincere regard by treating them with 
uniform courtesy. Order or confusion, har- 
mony or friction, will depend more upon him 
than upon any other individual. 

Third. He must be a good executive. It 
is to be supposed this trait entered into the 
reason for his selection. To be a good 
executive, he must be prompt and regular. 
If he expects his orders to be obeyed, he must 
obey them himself. He must have himself 
in hand, self-possessed, tender and firm. 
How can one manage hundreds of people of 
all ages, who himself is not under the strict- 
est authority? He must drill himself into 
planning his program before entering the 
school-room. An impromptu order of 
service begets confusion. He should know 
what he wants to do and do it, carrying the 
school with him. He will cultivate those 
personal traits, such as alertness, hopeful- 
ness, enthusiasm and tact, which will pre- 
serve order and achieve results if anything 
will. 

Fourth. He should at all times be ac- 
quainted with the most approved Sunday 
school methods. He is regarded as a leader 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 173 

and he should be able to take his place at 
the front of the advancing column. He 
ought to strive so to equip himself that if 
he is asked for the best thought on any Sun- 
day school problem he is ready with an an- 
swer, or, at least, knows where the answer 
can be found. The methods and principles of 
religious education are not so profound that 
the man of ordinary intelligence cannot mas- 
ter them. In many instances, however, the 
ability exceeds the effort. Pupils are ac- 
customed to the best pedagogical methods in 
the day schools, and instruction on Sunday 
will be weakened if obsolete formulae still 
obtain with us. Teachers do not feel free 
to blaze the way, even if they are able to do 
so. They look to him for that. It is to be 
supposed that the office sought the man, and 
that those who were responsible for putting 
him where he is saw in him capacity for 
leadership. He should be a diligent student 
of the best in his line, and a hard worker. 
It is particularly important that he shall 
know how to set others to work. There is 
a criticism not infrequently made of a super- 
intendent that does him credit. It is this: 
"He is always trying to get other people to 
do the work." This is his salvation and that 
of the school. He should be a general issu- 
ing orders, and not an errand boy. This is 



174 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

a mark of a true executive. It will do much 
to keep the school en rapport with himself. 
The office of the superintendent is fraught 
with grave responsibilities, and it takes a big 
man to fill it. 

3. The Teacher 

There has been not a little unthinking 
and indiscriminate ridicule hurled at the Sun- 
day school. It has been crystalized in a 
popular conundrum, running like this: 
"When is a school not a school?" The an- 
cwer is supposed to be, "When it is a Sunday 
school." Most of the criticism of the school 
has been directed at the teachers. Now, few 
of our teachers are perfect. They don't 
claim to have attained. They have not 
banded themselves together and set them- 
selves up as illustrations of the fine art of 
teaching. They are conscious of their limi- 
tations. 

It must be acknowledged that some of 
them are inefficient, ignorant, stupid, unin- 
terested, incapable of leading young souls to 
altitudes of sounder thinking and better liv- 
ing. In themselves they are not good illus- 
trations of what the gospel ought to produce. 
What they are negatives what they say. If 
those under their instruction follow them 
they will land in the ditch. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 175 

What makes the criticism hurt is not that 
part of it isn't true, but that too much of it 
comes from persons who do not attend Sun- 
day school ; who do not know its inner work- 
ings; who have not weighed its results in 
fair balances ; who have based their sweeping 
deductions on hearsay, to which they have 
added an ingredient called prejudice. 

The rank and file of our teachers are 
splendid, consecrated, intelligent men and 
women. To meet them, mix with them, and 
study their work, furnishes all the evidence 
one needs. Possibly if we did less criticising 
and more praising, we would help them and 
put ourselves in a position where we could 
see more in the school worth thinking well 
of. There are teachers in all schools of 
whom any institution would be proud. Some 
of the ministers, missionaries, and other re- 
ligious leaders in the Church to-day are 
where they are because they sat at the feet 
of faithful teachers in the Sunday school. To 
berate them indiscriminately because a few 
are ignorant and incompetent, shows bad 
taste and a confused judgment. 

This reminds us of the poem, "The Owl 
Critic," by Mr. James T. Field, the sub- 
stance of which has been given us by Dr. 
E. W. Rice, who says : "Mr. James T. Field 
has a noted humorous poem, 'The Owl 



176 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

Critic,' which tells of a conceited youth, who 
saw what he supposed to be a stuffed owl 
in the window of a barber shop. With pom- 
pous claims for knowledge on owls, he in- 
sisted that the owl was badly stuffed, his wing 
was preposterous, his head not right, his 
body badly poised, his feathers badly ar- 
ranged, his claws impossibly curled on the 
perch, and that if he couldn't stuff an owl 
better than that he would go out of the tax- 
idermist business. Just then the owl turned 
its head and blinked, and got down gravely 
from its perch and hooted at the critic. It 
was a live owl; and the critic walked down 
the street, thinking himself a big fool for 
criticising a live owl." 

The Sunday school is not a dead institu- 
tion, its critics to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing; neither is its teaching force destitute of 
ability and wanting in those qualities which 
must give permanence to the work done. We 
welcome criticism, honest, sincere, discrim- 
inating criticism. We welcome those who 
are on the outside to come in. We are will- 
ing to learn. There are many who do not 
know, and hence cannot appreciate what the 
school is doing. It operates under serious 
handicaps, which must be considered when 
any appraisement of the school is given. 

We have two challenges to throw out. 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 177 

First. We challenge any man to point to 
another institution, no older than the Sun- 
day school, that has attained to the same 
popular favor and yielded the results to the 
Church, the home and the state, that the 
Sunday school has, without becoming a bur- 
den to the community. Second. We chal- 
lenge any man to point to an army of work- 
ers anywhere, who, without thought of mate- 
rial remuneration, are rendering such intel- 
ligent, whole-souled, self-sacrificing and up- 
lifting service as are our Sunday school teach- 
ers. No other body of persons is doing more 
for the Church of Christ and is less appre- 
ciated than our teachers. 

They are often compared with public 
school teachers, and always to their disad- 
vantage. True, Sunday school teachers are 
not as well-trained; they do not have their 
work as well in hand, from a professional 
standpoint. Two things, however, are to be 
said in favor of the Sunday school teachers. 
First, their average term of service is longer 
than that of the public school teacher, and 
second, they serve out of love, receiving no 
money return. We are not ashamed of the 
vast majority of Sunday school teachers. 

The work of the teacher is a most re- 
sponsible one. It makes no difference how 
one looks at it, the place is holy ground. The 



178 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

dangers attaching to it almost appall us, 
while the opportunities it offers are big 
enough to challenge an angel's best: 

His text-book is the Bible, the material 
he works w T ith is the pupil, his helper is the 
Holy Spirit, his aim is Christlikeness of 
character, his method is through speech 
and example, the result of his labor endures 
forever. 

The task assigned the teacher grows in 
seriousness when he bears in mind that all 
the religious training some of the learners 
before him receive they get during the one 
hour they are in his presence. They come 
from homes that are not religious. The 
wear and tear of the street, and sometimes 
of associates in the public schools, make ter- 
rible inroads upon any desire to live for 
Jesus. The teacher must in one hour estab- 
lish and reinforce the life of the child so 
that he will remain true for seven days to 
the ideals he has learned. It is quite easy to 
believe that the weakest point in the aver- 
age teacher is an inadequate conception of 
what teaching the word of God to perishing 
souls means. If he realized that the destiny 
of half a dozen or a dozen souls hinged on 
the way he did his work, can you imagine 
he would be tardy, or irregular, or listless, 
or disinterested, or say before the class, "I 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 179 

did not have time to prepare my lesson this 
week," or be satisfied with his present abil- 
ity? He should be conscious of its serious 
and heavy responsibility. He is not working 
with sand or clay or granite, but with death- 
less spirits. 

The saying that teachers are born and not 
made has done our schools a world of harm. 
It must be admitted that some people are so 
gifted and so finely organized that they in- 
stinctively teach well. But their number is 
small. Ninety-five per cent of the teachers 
are made, not born; and the few who are 
born teachers can be made much better than 
what they are. We come into the world with 
certain gifts and talents, but these need de- 
velopment. Some people are born musicians, 
others are born artists, others are born 
poets ; but they toil long and hard before they 
do satisfactory work. 

Our teachers need the anointed vision and 
the kindling of the fires of ambition. They 
must reach and climb. They must keep their 
goals out of the dust. They must be made 
to see that it is better farther on. The teacher 
who does not aspire is thereby disqualified. 
As a rule, the best teachers want to improve, 
the weaker ones are satisfied. 

A prominent pastor announced that he 
had organized a teacher-training class, and 



180 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

was surprised to see that his highest-ranking 
teachers were the first to join. But should 
such a thing be surprising? A mark of an 
able teacher is the desire to avail himself of 
anything that will help him grow. There is 
more hope of a person who ranks lower, 
but develops, than of that one who has abil- 
ity but stands still. We would lift ourselves 
clean above mediocrity if our teachers would 
move out of ruts and lead the way to easily 
accessible heights. As long as it remains true 
that eighty-five per cent of the success of the 
Sunday school depends on its teachers, we 
must touch, mold, instruct and inspire them 
before we dare even hope for any really 
great advance. 

Sunday school teachers should be men 
and women of conviction. They must know 
what they believe and why. To them the 
Bible must be the word of God, and its cen- 
tral figure, Jesus Christ, the only hope for 
sinful man. They must be able to say about 
the saving truths the Scriptures set forth, "I 
believe." They may have a professional 
knowledge of the Bible and be students of 
child nature, and be able to present the 
truth to the growing mind, but that is not 
enough. They are compelled to say, "Upon 
this truth I stand, my faith is pinned to it." 
This is so reasonable. Any argument to the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 181 

contrary needs no refutation. 

A teacher should love the Bible and seek 
a daily acquaintance with its contents; he 
should love his pupils, otherwise he is not 
likely to feed and tend them well ; he should 
love his work and be an enthusiast in it; he 
should know that he teaches more by his ex- 
ample than by his words, and that religion 
is received more by absorption than by di- 
rect instruction. He should be what he wants 
his pupils to be, and he should be that first. 
It is necessary for him to be endowed with 
an extra amount of patience and grit and 
tact. He must really try to understand the 
child, by studying the environment in and 
outside the home, by listening to the child's 
stories and getting his viewpoint, and by re- 
membering his own childhood days. There 
should be a sincerity about all he does. 

And he must know Jesus Christ as a per- 
sonal Saviour. The incompetency of the un- 
spiritual need not be dwelt on at length. He 
must be a man of God. This might not be 
quite so important if his work was limited 
to the one hour's work per week; but he is 
teaching, literally teaching seven days a week 
by his example ; and he would be surprised to 
know how often he is in the minds of his 
pupils during these days, and how, both 
consciously and unconsciously, they are re- 



182 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

producing him. He is living in other per- 
sonalities, and when he is dead they will 
keep alive and hand on the impress he gave 
them. 

It is God's way. When He wanted to re- 
veal Himself to us He did not send us a 
book, He did not give us a map of Palestine, 
He did not tell us what His Son would do 
were He to come to earth. No, none of 
these nor all of them would do. He sent 
His Son, and said, "Look on Him and see 
what I am." And that method is in force 
to-day. Saving truth is communicated 
through Christian personality. The teacher 
must be more than a pedagogue, or a psy- 
chologist, or an interpreter of cold facts. 
He is the pupil's model, the pupil's Bible. 
It is a great thing to be a teacher, a conse- 
crated, efficient teacher. Outside the home 
and the pastoral office there is nothing to my 
mind equal to it. 

There is fear that the new emphasis put 
on the study of child nature, and the popu- 
larization of the most recent methods of 
Sunday school work, and the insistence on 
teacher-training, will obscure the funda- 
mental and crowning thing — the Christian 
personality of the teacher. No specialist has 
intended that it should be so, but the stress- 
ing of child study and methods has shifted 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 183 

the point of emphasis, and misled a few, who 
now think they see a great light and at last 
have put their feet on the royal road to suc- 
cess as teachers. 

Teachers must be men and women of 
recognized piety and genuine Christian ex- 
perience. For teaching is letting one's light 
shine. It is telling to others what has al- 
ready been incorporated into our being. It 
is giving permission to others to copy our 
lives. It is the uncovering of scars we have 
won in the service of the Lord Jesus. It is 
nothing less than Christ incarnate anew in 
us, walking, serving, warning, loving, help- 
ing and saving. That makes teaching in its 
totality of speech, conduct and unconscious 
influence so important. 

When a storm sweeps across the sea and 
rolls and threatens the vessel, the captain will 
keep his eye on the star, if it can be seen, and 
on the delicate needle, but the passengers 
read danger or safety in the face of the cap- 
tain. We keep our eyes on Jesus, but it is 
altogether probable that our pupils have 
their eyes on us most of the time. 

It is next to impossible to tell of all the 
advantages the modern Sunday school is en- 
joying. We could not return to the old 
regime without the surrender of many pre- 
cious and profitable acquisitions. Were our 



184 CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

fathers to step into an up-to-date school, they 
would see little similarity, in outward form, 
at least, between it and what they knew. 
And yet is it not true that they had splendid 
Christian men and women for teachers, just 
as we have, and that in this respect they were 
not far behind us? 

It is not true to say that the Sunday school 
has been a failure because some of the funda- 
mental principles of education have been ig- 
nored. No one will decry the need for the 
study of child psychology and modern meth- 
ods. But it must not be forgotten that even 
though we should carry over into the Sun- 
day school all that is best in the public school, 
we will fail utterly unless our teachers are liv- 
ing examples of that gospel they would im- 
part to others. There are schools, and not 
a few, that are introducing everything new 
they hear about, and yet are obtaining no 
larger results than formerly. On the other 
hand, there are schools that are backward 
and ill-equipped, but they are getting results. 
There are first things, second things and 
third things in the Sunday school, and each 
must be given its place. If we lean too heav- 
ily on mere methods they will crumble be- 
neath the weight. 

There must be religious fires within the 
machinery of a school, a spirit among the 



CHALLENGE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 185 

wheels. The largest message a teacher can 
deliver is what he is. His inconsistencies are 
counted against him and the cause he repre- 
sents. Give us half a dozen teachers that 
love Christ and the Bible and the children, 
and we will undertake to build a school any- 
where. You and I have had such teachers. 
They stand out in our lives. We may not 
remember as much of their instruction as 
we should, but the shadow of their great 
souls falls over us to this day. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept 2005 

PreservationTechnoIogies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



